07/09/2004 Hamas and the Islamic Jihad pledged revenge Tuesday for an overnight IDF strike that hit a training camp of the Hamas armed wing in Gaza City, killing 14 militants and wounding 30 people. In the deadliest attack in Gaza for nearly four months, Israeli tanks, helicopters and warplanes pounded the Hamas site, as Israel struck back after a double suicide bombing. A barrage of tank shells and missiles hit the outskirts of the Gaza neighborhood of Seja’ia, a stronghold of Hamas, which launched nearly simultaneous blasts that killed 16 people on two Israeli buses in Be’er Sheva last Tuesday. „This ugly Israeli crime… will not pass unpunished,” Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri told Reuters. „It is an open war between the Zionists and us.” The group said all of the 14 dead were Hamas militants. „The enemy will pay for its crimes with a heavy price of blood and bodies of Zionists in the streets of al-Quds (Jerusalem), Bet Lid, Dizengoff and Hadera,” Islamic Jihad said in a statement, referring to the targets of past suicide bombings.
Early Tuesday, Palestinian gunners fired six Qassam rockets and four mortar shells at Gaza Strip settlements and the Western Negev town of Sderot, Israel radio reported. One of the Qassams slammed into an area near the entrance of Sderot, lightly injuring a man in his 60s. Palestinian Foreign Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath issued a statement branding the Israeli attack in Gaza as a „terrorist attack by Israeli occupation forces” and accusing Israel of trying to thwart efforts to restore calm. Gaza’s main hospital was overwhelmed by the flood of casualties. More than 20 people, including militants and bystanders, were injured, medical officials said. The first 11 bodies identified all belonged to Hamas members in their 20s, none of them senior figures, Palestinians said. The strike targeted a Hamas community center complex, including a building and an outdoor lot that the army says is used by the Hamas military wing for training. An Israel Defense Forces statement listed events that it said took place at the lot in recent days, including assembly of a large bomb and a suicide bomber’s vest, practice in hijacking vehicles and training in preparing and firing mortars and rockets. Dozens of members of the Hamas military wing, Iz a-Din al-Qassam, were meeting at the building during the time of the attack, Palestinian sources said. The building, which includes offices, is named after Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who was assassinated by Israel in April. A statement by the Hamas military wing said the IDF struck a „scouts camp where a group of fighters was training,” and pledged to hit back at Israel. Al-Masri called the operation „a new wave of aggression committed against our people and against our sons.” „It’s an ongoing war,” said al-Masri. „One day for us and one day for them.” Angry militants gathered at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, some with blood on their clothes from helping victims, shouting, „Revenge, revenge.” Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the security establishment decided last week to increase assassinations of Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, in the wake of last week’s double bus bombing in Be’er Sheva, for which Hamas claimed responsibility. Sixteen Israelis were killed in last Tuesday’s attack.
