Thursday, January 29, 2009

Israeli Warplane Bombs Gaza Border

Israeli Warplane Bombs Gaza Border
(NSI News Source Info) January 29, 2009: An Israeli warplane on Thursday bombed an area of the Gaza Strip border known to contain smuggling tunnels to Egypt after Palestinian militants fired a missile, the Israeli military said.
"An aerial attack took place against a site used to manufacture weapons in an area of the city of Rafah following the firing of a rocket into southern Israel in the evening," an Israeli army spokesperson told AFP.
Witnesses said the attack took place in eastern Rafah, an area known to contain smuggling tunnels, and that no one was injured.
A Palestinian child leads his horse as they pass destroyed homes in the area of east Jebaliya, in the northern Gaza Strip, that was devastated in the last Israeli military offensive, Wednesday Jan. 28, 2009. U.S. President Barack Obama's new Mideast envoy George Mitchell sought Wednesday to strengthen a 10-day-old Gaza cease-fire that was thrown into turmoil, as Israeli warplanes pounded Gaza smuggling tunnels in retaliation for a Palestinian bombing on Tuesday that killed a soldier.
Earlier the Israeli military said the missile was fired from the Gaza Strip towards the town of Ofakim, which fell in an unpopulated area.
The rocket attack was claimed by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of moderate Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction.
Later the Israeli military said that early on Thursday a second missile was fired into southern Israel, but caused no damage or injuries.
It was the second launch of a missile since the end of the Gaza war, which Israel launched following repeated rocket attacks by Palestinian militants.
On Wednesday, the ruling Islamist movement Hamas said it had fired several mortar rounds at Israeli troops making an incursion into the Gaza Strip.
The first major violation of the truce which ended Israel's 22-day onslaught against Hamas in the Gaza Strip took place on Tuesday, when Palestinian militants killed an Israeli soldier in a bomb blast near the border.

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