GAZA CITY, May 26: Israeli aircraft pounded more targets in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, as the main armed factions discussed a truce call by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to end “futile” rocket barrages.
But Hamas put the onus on Israel for any hope of an end to the rocket fire, demanding that it stop shooting first.
And a senior Palestinian security chief resigned, underscoring the continuing tensions between Abbas's Fatah and its rival Hamas that are an obstacle to achieving common cause toward Israel.
Five Palestinians were killed and eight wounded in a quick succession of four morning air raids on buildings used by the paramilitary Executive Force loyal to the senior Palestinian coalition partner, Hamas, medical sources said.
The bodies of three Palestinians were found under the rubble of a building destroyed in one attack, in Zeitun settlement south of Gaza City. Six people were wounded, including three critically, two of whom died later.
Two other Executive Force posts were attacked, one in the nearby Shati refugee camp, in which four people were wounded, and the other at Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.
The fourth raid targeted a militant training camp at Khan Yunis, also in the south. No casualties were reported.
At least 45 Palestinians have been killed in air strikes on Gaza since May 16 that Israel says are aimed at preventing militants from firing rockets into Israel. Those attacks have killed one Israeli and wounded 19 others.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers arrested a senior Hamas figure, minister of state Wafsi Qabha, during an overnight raid on his home in the occupied West Bank, his wife and Palestinian sources said.
Israeli forces already detained 33 senior Hamas figures in the West Bank on Thursday, including education minister Nassereddin al-Shaer.
Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz justified the arrests, saying they sent a “message to the military branches of terrorist organisations to stop their rocket fire.”
In Riyadh, the secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Abderrahman al-Attiya, denounced the Israeli strikes.
He called on the UN Security Council to “move rapidly to put an end to the spilling of blood and to assure urgent international protection of the Palestinians”, without making mention of the continuing rocket fire on Israel.—AFP