“We have a policy of exacting a heavy price from those who harm us”
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Israel emerged yesterday like a monster whose defeat drove it to insanity after the toll of two days of Israel’s revenge on the Gaza Strip arose to 15 in addition to more than 23 wounded. |
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed more raids and warned that Israeli air strikes in Gaza were just the first phase of Israel’s response. “We have a policy of exacting a heavy price from those who harm us, and this policy is being implemented on the ground,” he said while visiting wounded soldiers yesterday.
The Israeli airstrikes began on Thursday, shortly after eight Israelis were killed near the Red Sea resort town of Eilat in a series of resistance heroic attacks. Palestinian resistance fighters fired more than 30 rockets into the southern occupied territories in the most serious escalation since Israeli occupation forces invaded Gaza in December 2008.
In one airstrike, Israeli warplanes struck a target in the town of Khan Yunis, but no casualties have been reported from that attack yet. Another round of Israeli airstrikes on the besieged Gaza Strip has killed three people, raising the death toll to 16 in two days of attacks.
Medical sources say a five-year-old was among the fatalities of the attacks carried out late on Friday.
GAZA LULL OVER
Israeli officials have blamed a Gaza-based resistance group called the Popular Resistance Committee (PRC) for Thursday's attack and have vowed a “full force” response targeting Gaza, although the PRC, which is not affiliated with Hamas, denied involvement in the incident. Hamas also denied involvement.
However, Hamas’ military wing, Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, announced early Saturday that it is no longer committed to the Gaza region lull with Israel.
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Brigades’ spokesman Abu Obeida said in a statement: “There is no longer a lull vis-à-vis Israel, in the face of the ongoing massacre that it commits against the Palestinian people without any justification.” Hamas also urged all Gaza groups to “respond to Israel’s crimes.” |
Three Israelis were injured, two seriously, when rockets fired by resistance fighters in Gaza slammed into the coastal town of Ashdod early on Saturday, police said.
