Missile strike on house in refugee camp kills one

AN Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a house in Gaza’s Jabalya refugee camp yesterday, killing one Palestinian and wounding four others, witnesses said.

The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the latest attack in an 11-day-old offensive in the northern Gaza Strip aimed at stopping Palestinian militants from launching rockets into Israel.

Witnesses said a missile fired by an Israeli aircraft destroyed a house in the heart of Jabalya, killing a Palestinian man who worked in the camp as a teacher.

“We were asleep and suddenly there was a loud explosion and the ground shook,” a Jabalya resident said. “Three women neighbours were wounded and several other houses collapsed.”

Palestinian medics said a 10-year-old girl was also hurt.

At least 89 Palestinians, including a man who died yesterday of wounds suffered on October 1, have been killed in the offensive, Israel’s biggest thrust into Gaza since the Palestinian uprising began in 2000.

Palestinian medics and security sources have identified some 50 of the dead as militants and the rest as civilians.

Israeli troops killed seven Palestinians, including five militants, in Gaza yesterday. Three Israelis have also died since the start of the raid.

The dead on Saturday included a Hamas militant commander in Jabalya, where much of the fighting has been concentrated, witnesses said.

Despite international pressure, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last week ordered the army to intensify the assault, which began after militants killed two children in a rocket strike on an Israeli border town on September 29.

The attack on Sderot, which sees almost daily rocket attacks by militants, has fuelled right-wing opposition to the prime minister’s plan to evacuate all soldiers and Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip by the end of 2005.

Palestinian militants want to claim any pull-out as a victory. Israel is determined to smash them first.

Israel has said it will press on with its northern Gaza offensive as long as rocket strikes continue. Hamas, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction and is the main group behind the attacks, has vowed to continue its rocket launches.