Girl killed as Israel responds to attack

Source: Agencies  |   2008-6-6  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

AN Israeli missile aimed at a group of militants struck a house in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday, killing a 6-year-old Palestinian girl, officials said, hours after an Israeli was killed by a Hamas mortar barrage fired from the area.

The sudden spike in violence dealt a new setback to Egyptian efforts to mediate a truce between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers and raised the likelihood of a tough Israeli military reprisal.

The Palestinian girl was killed in an Israeli airstrike. The Israeli army confirmed the aerial attack and said it had hit a "gunman."

Airstrike

But Hamas security officials said the missile missed a group of militants and struck a nearby house. The girl, who was playing outside, was killed and her mother was wounded, said Dr Moaiya Hassanain of the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The airstrike came shortly after Gaza's Hamas rulers claimed responsibility for the deadly mortar attack in southern Israel. The mortar shells were fired from the same area targeted in the airstrike, the army said.

Israeli government spokesman David Baker said Hamas "will be held accountable" for the mortar attack. Israeli defense officials were set to discuss a response at a meeting on Sunday after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert returns from the United States.

The Israeli army said the mortar shells landed near a factory in the Nir Oz communal farm. Israel's national rescue service said that in addition to the death, one person was in serious condition and two others were moderately wounded.

Hamas, the Islamic militant group that has ruled Gaza for the past year, said it had fired three mortar shells "as a response to the nonstop aggression against our people."

Israel frequently conducts airstrikes and ground incursions in the Gaza Strip in response to Palestinian rocket and mortar fire. But the area has been largely quiet in recent weeks as Egypt works to wrap up a truce agreement.

Olmert is expected to convene his Security Cabinet, a gathering of senior government ministers and defense officials, on Sunday to discuss the ongoing violence in Gaza, Israeli defense officials said.

The officials said the Security Cabinet would consider voting on the cease-fire proposal, or alternatively discuss whether to step up military action in Gaza. They said most members of the Cabinet oppose the cease-fire.