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Blasts in Gaza After Bombers Hit Israel

Posted on: Sunday, 14 March 2004, 06:00 CST

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israeli attack helicopters fired missiles at three locations in Gaza City early Monday, hitting two workshops, residents said. The air strikes came a few hours after two Palestinian suicide bombers from Gaza blew themselves up at the Israeli port of Ashdod, killing 11 Israelis and wounding 18.

There was no immediate word of casualties from the Gaza strikes, and the location of the third reported air strike was not known. The Israeli military had no comment.

At the site of one of the targeted workshops, crowds gathered in the streets as fire engines sprayed water on the smoldering ruins. The attack took place after 1 a.m., and it was not known it anyone was in the workshop at the time.

The workshop was in the Nasser neighborhood, residents said. People went out on their balconies to watch the rescue operations.

The second workshop hit by Israeli missiles was in the Zeitoun neighborhood, near the seacoast, residents said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon consulted his army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, about Israel's response to the double suicide bombing, which marked the first time in more than three years of violence that Palestinian bombers had infiltrated into Israel from Gaza and carried out an attack.

Palestinian ambulances were cruising the streets of Gaza City, looking for the site of the second air strike. No one had been taken to a hospital in the half hour after the first explosion was heard.

In the past, Israeli forces have targeted workshops where they say Palestinian militants craft mortars and rockets that are aimed at Jewish settlements in Gaza and Israeli towns and villages just beyond the fence.

After the attack at Ashdod, Israeli police increased security at all Israeli seaports, airports and train stations. Israel Radio reported that the overall terror alert had been raised to its highest level.

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