Israel kills 23 in Gaza, targets Hamas commanders

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) – Israel killed at least 23 Palestinians in
Gaza on Wednesday, including nine members of one family in an
air strike that destroyed a house where the army said senior
Hamas commanders were meeting, witnesses said.

Wednesday’s death toll was the highest in a single day
since Israel on June 28 launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip
to force militants to free an abducted soldier and halt rocket
attacks on the Jewish state.

It was also the highest number of Palestinian deaths in one
day since September 2004.

A series of deadly Israel air raids coincided with an
armored sweep into the central Gaza.

The army said the strike on the three-storey house near
Gaza City wounded Mohammad Deif, overall leader of the
governing Hamas movement’s armed wing and Israel’s most wanted
man.

Senior Palestinian sources said Deif appeared to suffer
spinal injuries.

But a spokesman for Hamas’s Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades
denied Deif was hurt.

The group took part in the capture of Corporal Galid Shalit
on June 25, prompting Israel to launch its first ground
operations in Gaza since quitting the territory last year.

The air strike killed a local Hamas leader, Nabil Abu
Selmeya, his wife and seven sons and daughters aged 7 to 19,
medics said. His eldest son, who was not at home, survived.

A later Israeli air strike using two missiles killed at
least five other Palestinians, aged 15 to 20, in central Gaza.

Palestinian medics said Israel’s air raids and tank
shelling had killed a total of 23 people on Wednesday,
including militants and one policeman.

The Gaza offensive has killed nearly 80 Palestinians and
one soldier, piling pressure on the Hamas government, already
reeling from a Western aid embargo.

In a statement, Hamas said Israel “should be prepared for a
tough and open-ended confrontation that knows no limitations
and no red lines.”

Israel has rejected calls from Hamas for negotiations on a
prisoner swap for Shalit.

Israel’s army said Deif and other armed wing commanders
were meeting in the Gaza building. They were targeted because
intelligence showed they were planning attacks, it said.

“The fact that the meeting between Deif and the others took
place in a residential building is an indication they intended
to use the inhabitants as a human shield to protect
themselves,” a military spokesman said.

One senior Hamas commander, who was not in a
life-threatening condition, was among the 35 wounded.

RARELY SEEN

Deif, in his 40s and who is rarely seen in public, has
escaped several Israeli assassination attempts. Those close
calls have turned him into a folk hero to many Palestinians.

“Israel will pay for daring to hunt the lion of Qassam,”
said one Hamas activist who gave his name as Ahmed, speaking
near the wrecked building, a tangle of twisted metal, broken
concrete and blood.

The scene at the bombed Gaza building recalled Israel’s
assassination of Hamas military commander Salah Shehada in 2002
by dropping a one-tonne bomb on his home. The death of 14 other
people in that attack drew a wave of international criticism.

Deif later replaced Shehada.

The Israeli army sent dozens of armoured vehicles into
central Gaza before dawn, effectively cutting the territory in
two.

On Israel’s northern border, the Lebanese guerrilla group
Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed at least
seven Israelis in violence further inflaming Middle East
tensions. (Additional reporting by Dan Williams at Kissufim and
Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem)