Power outages as 3 killed in Gaza

THREE Palestinians, including a teenager, were killed yesterday in the latest Israeli military operation in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics said.

Ziad Abu Raqba, 17, died after being shot in the chest during an incursion east of the Al-Bureij refugee camp in the centre of the territory, they said, adding that he was not a member of a militant group.

Four other people were wounded during the operation that involved Israeli jeeps, armoured vehicles and bulldozers backed by helicopters, they said.

Later a missile hit a house east of Al-Bureij, killing two and wounding six, medics said. It was not clear whether the two were fighters or civilians. An Israeli army spokeswoman said she was looking into the matter.

Meanwhile, Palestinians in Gaza are being forced to live without electricity eight hours a day because Israel has sharply cut fuel supplies to the territory’s only electric plant, the head of Gaza’s energy authority said.

Israel said the fuel cutbacks were meant to send a “stern message” to Gaza militants to stop rocket attacks on southern Israel. The power outages come just days ahead of US President George W Bush’s visit to the region.

Meanwhile, Al-Qaida’s American spokesman called on the terror network’s fighters to greet President Bush with “bombs and booby-trapped vehicles” when he visits the Middle East, a video yesterday said.

Israeli Prime Minster Ehud Olmert said the military campaign against Gaza militants has grown harsher in recent days.

Kanan Obeid, chairman of Gaza’s Hamas-run energy authority, said Gaza now has only 35% of the power its 1.5 million residents need. Israel supplies all of its fuel and 60% of its electricity.

“Israel decided to send a stern message to the terror groups in Gaza, in the wake of continued rocket attacks, that we will take all measures necessary to defend our citizens,” Israeli government spokesman David Baker said of the cutbacks.