12-Year Old Among 7 Victims of Israeli Strike on Gaza
Posted by Zionist Extremism Main Impediment to Peace on Friday, April 11th at 5:30 PM

7 Palestinians Killed in Gaza Attacks
By SARAH EL DEEB – 10 hours ago

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces launched air strikes and a ground raid in the Gaza Strip Friday, trading fire with gunmen in clashes that killed seven Palestinians including a 12-year-old boy, Palestinians said.

The deaths drove the Palestinian death toll to 13 in Israeli strikes retaliating for a militant attack that killed two Israeli civilians at a border fuel depot Wednesday.

(Which was a retaliation to Israel's Collective Punishment of Gaza because its residents ELECTED someone Israel doesn't feel it can manipulate. That, and the long-planned attack on Gaza just weeks ago that slaughtered Palestinian civilians. What will the response to this new attack be ... ?)

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged after the attack to keep hitting Hamas so that it cannot "continue to operate against Israeli civilians as it does."

(Even though Hamas was not involved in the attack ...)

Israeli aircraft killed two Hamas militants in a strike on southern Gaza early Friday, the group said. The Israeli military confirmed the attack, saying it targeted gunmen near the Gaza-Israel border fence.

Israeli troops crossed into central Gaza and clashed with gunmen in the area. A 12-year old boy was fatally shot in the stomach and six other Palestinians were wounded, medics said.

Later in the day, Israeli forces fired at a group of Palestinian militants operating near a farm in central Gaza, killing four people and wounding several, including children, witnesses and doctors said. It was not immediately clear how many of the casualties were gunmen or bystanders.

(Other reports on this incident said that Israeli tanks fired on farmers working their fields, and that several others were kidnapped.)

The army confirmed that troops were operating in Gaza, and that aircraft had struck, but said it did not know anything about the death of the boy.

The brazen daylight attack on the Nahal Oz terminal between Gaza and Israel killed two civilian workers and prompted Israel to close the facility, which supplies all the fuel for Gaza's 1.4 million residents.

Israeli officials indicated the cutoff would not last past the weekend. An earlier Israeli plan to cut back fuel shipments in response to rocket attacks by Gaza militants was shelved under international pressure.

(Because it was illegal ...)

Hamas has ruled Gaza since June, 2007, when its militants routed forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas now heads a Western-backed government based in the West Bank and is holding peace talks with Israel.

(Actually, the forces 'routed' by Hamas were coordinated by the CIA and the Mossad, and Hamas was preempting a Coup attempt. This was disclosed weeks ago, yet the media refuses to accurately describe this situation.)

Hamas has continued attacking Israeli forces along the border and firing rockets at Israeli towns, and allows Gaza's other militant factions to do the same.

(Actually, they have recently abided by a cease-fire, while Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians have continued.)

There were no signs that the latest round of bloodshed would derail peace talks: Olmert said Thursday that Israel "will continue to hold serious and responsible negotiations that can lead us to agreements" with Palestinian moderates.

(This is a meaningless charade, designed to allow Israel some positive PR, while it stalls an actual agreement - which its ruling Extremists have rejected outright - and it scrambles to annex more land and complete thousands more illegal Settlement spaces.)

Olmert and Abbas have said they hope to reach an agreement by the end of the year.

(Utterly meaningless ...)

 http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jD4YSkDPlclqd9dHvg2f0Ij18zEgD8VVM9F80