Israel destroys Palestinian foreign minister’s office

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) – An Israeli air strike destroyed the office
of Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar on Thursday in
an attack that signaled Israel would pursue its Gaza offensive
while fighting along a second front in Lebanon.

Palestinian security officials said no one was hurt in the
night-time raid on the Foreign Ministry building in Gaza City,
as Israel pressed an offensive to free a captured soldier and
stop Palestinian militants firing rockets into the Jewish
state.

Zahar, a senior leader of the ruling Hamas Islamist
movement, was not in the building at the time and brushed off
the strike. He survived an Israeli assassination attempt in
2003 that killed his eldest son.

“Everybody here is wanted by Israel, everybody is a target,
every house is a target and every tree is a target. This is the
destructive system built in what is called Israel,” Zahar told
reporters at the site of his ruined offices.

Israel killed at least 24 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on
Wednesday, including nine members of one family in an air
strike that destroyed a house where the army said senior
commanders from the Hamas armed wing were meeting.

An Israeli army spokeswoman described Zahar as “one of the
most extremist leaders of Hamas” but said the attack had not
aimed to kill him.

Hamas, which came to power in the Palestinian territories
after a January election, is dedicated to Israel’s destruction.

The air strike on Zahar’s office was part of an offensive
Israel launched in Gaza two weeks ago after militants including
Hamas gunmen abducted a soldier in a raid into the Jewish
state.

Israeli aircraft have also wrecked the Gaza offices of the
prime minister and the interior minister, both of Hamas.

Wednesday’s toll was the highest number of Palestinians
killed in a single day in almost two years.

The Gaza offensive has killed around 80 Palestinians
including dozens of civilians, piling pressure on the Hamas
government, already reeling from a Western aid embargo. One
Israeli soldier has been killed.

Israel pulled troops and Jewish settlers out of Gaza last
year after 38 years of occupation.

The Jewish state has also gone on the offensive in Lebanon
after Hizbollah guerrillas captured two soldiers and killed
eight other troops in cross-border attacks on Wednesday.