- Religious leaders condemn "anti-Muslim" frenzy
- Firm can't fire man for 1.8 cent theft
- Obama pitches road spending, tax incentives in Ohio | Video
- Boeing not ruling out merger with rival
- U.S. religious leaders condemn "anti-Muslim" frenzy | Video
- Gold nears record as economy bears circle markets
- German party mistakenly hands out porn pens to kids
- Pressure mounts in U.S. against Koran-burning plan | Video
- HP sues to stop ex-CEO Hurd joining Oracle
- China Mobile falls as Vodafone sells $6.5 billion stake
NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. NASDAQ delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.
Israeli air strike kills Hamas commander in Gaza
Related Video
A Hamas policeman surveys the damage after Israeli air strikes in the central of Gaza Strip July 31, 2010. Israel carried out air strikes on targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday after a rocket fired from the Palestinian territory exploded in the city of Ashkelon, witnesses said.
Credit: Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
GAZA |
GAZA (Reuters) - An Israeli air strike has killed a Hamas military commander and rocket-maker in the Gaza Strip, the Islamist group that rules the Palestinian territory said on Saturday.
Issa Batran, whose caravan was hit by a missile, was the first Hamas commander killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza since Israel wound up a three-week military offensive there in January 2009.
Hundreds of Hamas supporters attended his funeral.
The Israeli military said it launched air strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza after a rocket fired from the enclave exploded in the city of Ashkelon.
The air strikes also hit a training camp used by Hamas and smuggling tunnels along Gaza's southern border with Egypt. Several people were wounded by debris, Palestinian medics said.
Hamas said Batran was a rocket-maker and the head of its military wing in the central Gaza Strip. The militant group has a rocket arsenal of crude, homemade projectiles and longer-range rockets smuggled in through tunnels under the border with Egypt.
Batran escaped an Israeli attack on his house in January 2009 during a devastating military offensive aimed at stopping daily rocket fire from Gaza into Israeli cities. His wife and children were killed in the attack.
Israel carried out the air strikes on Friday after militants in Gaza fired a rocket into Ashkelon on Israel's Mediterranean coast, blowing out the windows of an apartment block and damaging parked cars in a residential area.
No one was injured by the blast, which police said was caused by a 122mm, Chinese-made Grad rocket. But the attack ended more than a year of calm for the Israeli city closest to Gaza.
It was the most serious attack on Ashkelon, which has a population of 125,000 and lies on the coast about 12 km (7 miles) north of the Gaza Strip, since Israel ended a three-week military offensive in Gaza in January 2009.
The offensive largely ended rocket fire into Israel from the Gaza Strip.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Joseph Nasr, editing by Jon Hemming)
Hooray! Good job Israel. Where is all the international pressure to bring peace between Hamass and the Palestinian Authority?
When the terrorist flew the planes into the world trade center on 9/11. the news media showed Hamas and the palestinian people of Gaza dancing and cheering in the streets, and praising Allah for the great victory of Al Qeada against the Americans. Those people are NOT our friends. Good for you Israel!!!
Kudos to Israel on a well placed missile strike , The palestinian militants aren’t to swift in the intelligence department , Have they not learned by now that if you fire rockets and mortar fire at Israeli towns and cities the Israel will always hit back harder ,
The militant group who claimed responsibility for the attack are affiliated with Hamas , Does Hamas think that using its proxy groups will absolve them of responsibility ? Hamas will probably threatened Israel with some sort of retaliation in the next 24 hours, I guess its time for Hamas to send its leaders back to dubai to hide out …”Again” while Gaza’s residents bear the brunt of their misguide idiotic decision making government …Hamas does not want peace , If there was peace with Israel , it would put them out of business !!!
World peace-your one stupid person that is not educated on Israel and the terrorist problem,the terrorist are coward and “Penvk” is right as the terrorist leaders will leave gaza after that start there rocket firing on Israel and leave the people of gaza to take what Israel dishes out,the terrorist hide behind women and kids,palistine leadr and Israel were starting a peace talks and this terrorist group that’s part of hamas shoots a rocket into Israel hoping Israel would not do nothing since it was not hamas that shot the rocket,I feel sorry for some of the people in gaza who are held hostage by hamas because if they speak out against hamas for there attacking Israel hamas will kill them and better believe that if Israel is attacked by the terrorist that Israel will hit back hard.Israel should just run all arabs out of gaza and west bank because the arabs will keep attacking Israel,Iran backs hamas,hezbalah-Iran want to destory Israel and has Israel surounded by there proxy armies which are terrorist groups.It’s the arabs,terrorist that will never let peace happen so I hope that Israel will go full scale fighting and destory all that attacks them.
world-peace? Issa Batran as hero, defending his nation? What nation – TERRORISTS & cowards as well. Hiding behind women & children, aiming thousands of rockets at civilian targets, wow what a hero!
Shameless was the Arab countries attacking the new state of Israel at it’s inception & wanting to drive the Jews into the sea on several different occasions. When that failed, instead of trying to make peace, they meaning Jordan, Syria lebanon & Egypt, corraled their own people into what they call Palistine & use them as hostages.
About time – Hamas needs lots of lessons in life! Hopefully, this is only the start of wiping out all of those cowards and killers.
Since when do “stone throwing innocents” fire rockets? Please decide where you stand.
They missed a golden opportunity to get rid of them all.
“Hundreds of Hamas supporters attended his funeral.”
