An Israeli attack on Hamas activists training near Gaza City killed at least 14 people early on Tuesday.
The raid came a week after Hamas murdered 16 Israelis in twin suicide bombings on buses in Be’er Sheva. Israel’s leaders vowed bloody revenge on the Islamist group. The dead in Tuesday’s attack were all believed to be Hamas supporters.
Witnesses described helicopters hovering overhead as about five powerful explosions were heard shortly after midnight when missiles or tank shells hit a football pitch and neighbouring building in Shajaiyeh, a Hamas stronghold on the eastern flank of Gaza City close to the fence with Israel. Palestinian sources said Hamas had been training fighters at the site under cover of darkness.
Juma Shaka, a doctor at Shifa hospital in Gaza City, said 14 bodies were brought to the morgue and 25 people treated for wounds.
It was the bloodiest Israeli attack in the Gaza strip since the military’s assault on Rafah refugee camp in May.
Hamas predictably threatened its own retaliation and loudspeakers on mosques across Gaza City swiftly began blaring denunciations of the attack. At the hospital, men waved bloodied clothes and vowed revenge.
”This bloody crime is a new wave of aggression committed against our people and against our sons,” said a Hamas spokesperson, Mushir al-Masri.
”It’s an ongoing war. One day for us and one day for them.”
Masri denied the football pitch was used to train fighters and said it was a summer camp for Palestinian youths. But the Israeli military said it targeted the site after an accidental explosion there a fortnight ago.
”The targeted location was known as a gathering field of Hamas terrorists to be trained in the planting and activating of explosive devices, launching of RPG and rockets and practicing infiltration into Israeli communities and military posts,” the army said in a statement.
”Two weeks ago a unique and powerful explosive device was assembled at the field. The explosive device was to be activated against an Israeli target.
”Due to what seems to be a technical difficulty the explosive device exploded at the training field, killing a well-known Hamas terrorist and wounding others.”
The military also said a suicide bomb belt assembled at the site was discovered as a Palestinian worker attempted to smuggle it through a Gaza checkpoint and into Israel last week. – Guardian Unlimited Â