Israel Launches Missile Attacks on Gaza
- Author: Al-Jazeera
- Publish date:04/08/2004
- Section:WORLD HEADLINES
Israeli helicopter gunships have fired missiles into the Palestinian village of Tal al-Zatar and the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza.
Three people suffered serious injuries during the Wednesday raids, according to Palestinian medical sources.
Occupation forces declined to confirm the missile attacks, but said troops were scouring the region for pockets of resistance that continued to launch rockets on illegal Israeli settlements.
Israel's military radio also reported that a number of tanks and armoured vehicles had been deployed to the entrance of Jabalya - the largest refugee camp in Gaza.
**Air raids and rockets***
The two raids come just a month after tanks and infantry stormed in and around Bait Hanun, also in northern Gaza, and razed orchards and farmland they said could be used for cover by resistance fighters.
Tel Aviv says the town of Sderot continues to be targeted daily by inaccurate Qassam rockets.
As a result, occupation forces "have had to expand their incursion westward into the Jabalya refugee camp area".
However, the Hamas resistance group on Tuesday issued a video carried by al-Arabiya satellite television in which it swore to keep raining rockets on Sderot unless Israel ended its 37-year occupation of Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon aims to evacuate Jewish colonists from Gaza next year under his "disengagement plan", but vows to crush resistance first to prevent them from claiming victory.
**PHOTO CAPTION***
Palestinians carry a wounded man after he was injured in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip August 3, 2004. (Reuters)