GAZA (Islamweb & Agencies) - Israeli helicopter gunships fired missiles at a building in the Gaza Strip on Saturday which the Jewish state's army said was used by Palestinians to produce arms, including mortar bombs.
The military said it attacked near the Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza and that pilots returned to base reporting direct hits. No casualties were reported.
Palestinian witnesses said they saw a helicopter gunship fire three missiles near Khan Younis, but could not locate the impacts of the projectiles.
The attack was the latest round of tit-for-tat violence in a 10-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. (Read photo caption below).
On Friday, Israeli tanks destroyed police posts belonging to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s Force 17 in the West Bank city of Ramallah after Palestinian gunmen shot dead an Israeli teenager from a nearby settlement.
The latest violence has shaken international efforts to bring an end to confrontations in which more than 600 people, mostly Palestinians, have been killed.
PALESTINIAN CABINET CONDEMNS ATTACKS
The Palestinian cabinet, convened on Friday by Arafat in Gaza, condemned the Israeli bombardment in Ramallah.
A statement issued at the end of the meeting repeated a call for the deployment of international monitors to oversee the implementation of a U.S.-brokered cease-fire. The Palestinians called on leaders of the Group of Eight nations to help put a monitoring force in place.
``The Palestinian leadership urges the industrialized countries to put its decision to send international observers into action,'' the cabinet said, referring to a call by the G8 leaders to allow monitors into the region.
Palestinians have supported such a force from the start of the uprising in September, but Israel has opposed the use of foreign observers.
Recently, Israeli officials have said they could accept monitors made up of officials from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. CIA Director George Tenet brokered a truce last month to try to quell the unrest.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Palestinian boys shout at Israeli occupation soldiers during a demonstration in the West Bank village al-Nabi Saleh to protest against the occupation of a Palestinian house by the Israeli army of occupation July 27, 2001. Israeli tanks attacked Palestinian security posts in the West Bank allegedly in retaliation for the shooting of an Israeli teenager by Palestinian Resistance men. (Ammar Awad/Reuters)