An Israeli air strike today against a car carrying militants in Gaza City killed nine Palestinians including two schoolchildren.

The Israeli military said the militants were on a mission to launch Katyusha rockets at southern Israel.

Of course, we're supposed to take their word for it.

Palestinian witnesses said several missiles were fired, and one of them hit the car. A second missile came two minutes after an initial one, after a crowd had begun to gather around the scene of the attack, witnesses said.

This is incomprehensible. They either knew or should have known that a crowd would gather after the first strike, yet they deliberately fired a second time into the gathering crowd. Truly unbelievable. Words cannot describe their brutal and callous disregard for human life.

Seven of the Palestinians killed were civilians, hospital officials said, and Islamic Jihad said the other two belonged to the ranks of its militant group. One of them was Hamoud Wadiya, Islamic Jihad’s top rocket launcher. The group identified the other militant as Shawki Sayklia.

Among the dead were two members of the same family, a father and son.

Also killed were three medical employees on their way to tend to the wounded from an earlier explosion.

“What happened today is a brutal massacre committed against innocent civilians and fighters from our group,” said Kader Abib, an Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza speaking to protesters outside a hospital morgue.

“The Zionist enemy insists on shedding Palestinian blood and we insist on going ahead with our Jihad and resistance. God willing the resistance groups ... will have a harsh response. All options are open for us.”

The Israeli army said the militants were on their way to fire Katyusha rockets at Israel, which IF TRUE could explain why stopping them was such a high priority. Katyushas have a longer range than the home-made rockets usually fired by Gaza militants, and have only recently appeared in the coastal strip.

The operative phrase here is IF TRUE. And since they obliterated all the evidence, we will likely never know.

Thirty-two Palestinians were injured in the strike, three of them seriously. Doctors at Gaza’s Shifa hospital found it difficult to work with the large number of casualties, and some were being treated on the bloodied floor.

At the scene of the air strike, scores of people surrounded a mangled yellow van that had been hit by a missile, its interior covered in twisted metal and the upholstery ripped off the foam seats. A man wailed beside the van as his peers propped him up by the arms. A white slipper lay in a pool of blood on the ground.

Ambulances screamed towards Shifa Hospital carrying dead and wounded. One medical worker yelled out “he’s dead” as teams removed a victim from the ambulance. At the hospital, the injured writhed in pain as medical teams bandaged wounds. Three blood-covered bodies lay on the hospital floor.

At the hospital’s morgue, where the bodies were taken, angry women shouted, “Death to Israel, Death to the occupation!”

Outside the morgue, an Islamic Jihad militant fired his rifle in a show of anger. Other gunmen vowed revenge. One went inside the morgue, put his hands on one of the dead bodies, and then smeared their blood on his rifle. Angry crowds burned tyres near the site where one Israeli missile hit.

How could it be otherwise?

I can't imagine how America would respond if Canada or Mexico decided to lay claim to some of our territory and proceed to massacre American children on a daily basis. What would you do?

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Israeli missiles kill Gaza bystanders

aljazeera.net

At least 11 Palestinians, including two children, have been killed in two Israeli air strikes in central Gaza City.

Two children are among those killed in the missile attack

Dr Jumaa al-Saqqa, a spokesman for al-Shifa hospital, told Aljazeera that a number of Palestinians were also wounded in the strike in Salah al-Din Street, the main road through the coastal strip.

Hospital officials and witnesses are reported as saying that two schoolchildren are among the dead.

According to Aljazeera's correspondent, the first strike hit a car carrying members of al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad.

Palestinian witnesses said several missiles were fired, and one of them hit the car.

The second missile came two minutes later, after a crowd had begun to gather around the scene of the attack, witnesses said.

The correspondent said two ambulance drivers were among the dead.

The number of the dead is expected to rise, as hospital sources say some of the wounded are in critical condition.

Islamic Jihad reaction

Khalid al-Batsh, an Islamic Jihad spokesman, confirmed that al-Quds Brigades activists were killed in the attack.

"The activists were killed defending our nation, religion and Palestine, and continuing our resistance and jihad in the face of the Israeli occupation."

Al-Batsh said: "The Israeli aggression will continue as long as the international voice is silent and Arabs feel embarrassed to condemn the Israeli massacres."

An AFP report identified the two activists as Hammudeh al-Wadyeh, 25, and Shawqi al-Saiqali, also thought to be in his 20s.

Israeli confirmation

The Israeli occupation army has confirmed that it fired a missile at the car.

An army spokeswoman in Tel Aviv told Reuters: "There was an attack on a car that was heading to fire rockets at Israel."

Israel-Palestinian violence has escalated since an explosion on a Gaza beach on Friday killed eight civilians.

On Sunday, an Israeli air strike killed two Hamas members in the northern Gaza Strip and wounded three others.

Attacks escalating

A rights group says Israeli attacks have escalated

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights based in Gaza City, has expressed its concern at the escalation of Israeli attacks in the occupied territories.

The rights organisation recorded the killing of 14 Palestinians and the injury of 36 others in Israeli attacks in 24 hours, in a report issued on June 11.

Israeli forces planes resumed causing sonic boom in the skies of the Gaza Strip on June 10.

"These attacks cause widespread fear among civilians, especially children, and cause material damage to property," the PCHRC said.

The PCHRC "calls upon the international community to act immediately to stop these crimes, renewing the call to the High Contracting Parties of the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their obligations to guarantee the protection of Palestinian civilians in the occupied Palestinian territories".

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