This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/21/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-strip.html

The article has changed 9 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Israeli Strike in Gaza Hits Family of Hamas Military Commander Israeli Strike in Gaza Hits Family of Hamas Military Commander
(about 3 hours later)
JERUSALEM — A Hamas leader said early Wednesday that an Israeli airstrike had killed the wife and young child of the movement’s top military commander, Mohammed Deif, hours after Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip broke an agreed cease-fire with Israel and talks aimed at ending the six-week conflict collapsed in Cairo. JERUSALEM — Israeli airstrikes early Wednesday killed the wife and baby son of the top military commander of Hamas, the Islamist movement that dominates the Gaza Strip, hours after rocket fire from Gaza broke a temporary cease-fire and talks aimed at ending the six-week conflict collapsed in Cairo. The fate of the commander, Mohammed Deif, the target of several previous Israeli assassination attempts, remained unclear.
Mousa Abu Marzook, a Cairo-based leader of Hamas, the Islamist movement that dominates Gaza, wrote on his Facebook page about 3 a.m. Wednesday that Mr. Deif’s wife and daughter, who Reuters said was 2 years old, were killed in an F-16 strike on a Gaza City home the night before. Another Hamas statement hours later, inviting people to join in the funeral, said the child was a boy. Mr. Deif, who is considered to be the designer of Hamas’s signature Qassam rockets and the leader of its armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, is a shadowy figure who was severely injured in a 2003 Israeli strike. After Mr. Deif claimed in a recorded message last month that Hamas was “winning the war,” a senior Israeli minister vowed to hunt him down.
Mr. Deif, who is considered to be the designer of Hamas’s signature Qassam rockets and the leader of its armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, is a shadowy figure who has survived several Israeli assassination attempts with severe injuries. “For years, Mohammed Deif has been hiding in the tunnels underneath Gaza, and that is where he will remain because he’s a dead man,” Yair Lapid, Israel’s finance minister and a member of its so-called security cabinet, said on July 30. Later, Mr. Lapid declared, “To Deif and his gang, I want to say clearly: Just as the United States did not rest until it found Bin Laden and eliminated him, we will find you and bring you to justice.”
Witnesses said Tuesday night that the home that was struck belonged to the Dalo family but that part of it had been rented by an unrelated family for more than a year. It is common practice for senior militants in Hamas to move from apartment to apartment, often rented in others’ names, to avoid detection by Israeli intelligence services. Israel has not killed many well-known Hamas military leaders during the air-and-ground assault on Gaza that began on July 8; most of the more than 2,000 Palestinians killed have been civilians, according to human-rights groups. A more limited operation in November 2012 started with the assassination of Ahmed al-Jabari, who was Mr. Deif’s deputy but actually ran day-to-day operations of the Qassam Brigades because of Mr. Deif’s injuries.
Mr. Abu Marzook called the attack “a new crime” in his Facebook post, as well as “a new intelligence blow,” perhaps referring to the fact that Mr. Deif was not hit. Israel has not killed many well-known Hamas military leaders during the air-and-ground assault on Gaza that it began on July 8; a more limited operation in November 2012 started with the assassination of Ahmed Jabari, who was officially Mr. Deif’s deputy but actually ran day-to-day operations of the Qassam Brigades because of Mr. Deif’s injuries. The Israeli military would not confirm whether it had targeted Mr. Deif or his family, or if there had been a change in strategy since the violence resumed. Witnesses in Gaza said that F-16 warplanes had dropped at least four bombs at about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday on a Gaza City home belonging to the Dalo family that had been partly rented out for more than a year. It is common practice for senior militants in Hamas to move from apartment to apartment, often rented in others’ names, to avoid detection by Israeli intelligence services.
Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman for the Gaza-based Health Ministry, had originally said in a statement on his Facebook page that three people were killed in the strike on the Dalo family home, including a woman and child. But that post was later removed, and Mr. Qedra said in an interview Wednesday morning that only the woman and child were killed, declining to identify them. Yaakov Peri, an Israeli minister and former head of the internal security service, said the strike “demonstrates intelligence capabilities.”
The Israeli strikes came after Gaza-based militants resumed rocket fire around 4 p.m. Tuesday after a nine-day break, prompting Israel to withdraw its delegation from Cairo, where talks toward a more durable truce have deadlocked. “It shows that even though much has been said in the past about our inability to reach the heads of Hamas, our intelligence is indeed capable,” Mr. Peri said in a radio interview. “I think that it is an important indicator of the fact that no military wing head or anyone who is a target for assassination is immune.”
A barrage of more than 50 rockets continued past midnight, mostly targeting Israel’s southern cities, though a few reached Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where one fell in open ground, according to the Israeli military. Tzipi Livni, Israel’s justice minister, told the news website Ynet that “every person who commits terror, his liquidation is not just legitimate but desirable, in my opinion.”
A fresh round of rockets, mainly aimed at Ashkelon and Ashdod, the two largest cities near Gaza, began Wednesday around 6 a.m. and escalated about two hours later. In Gaza, there was no word of Mr. Deif’s whereabouts and some confusion over the strike that killed his wife, identified by the health ministry as Wedad Deif, 28, and their 7-month-old son, Ali. The ministry spokesman, Ashraf al-Qedra, originally said in a statement on his Facebook page Tuesday night that three people had been killed at the Dalo home. That post was later removed, and Mr. Qedra said in an interview Wednesday morning that only the woman and child were killed. Palestinian news reports said several other bodies were later pulled from the rubble of the home.
Israel, earlier, conducted 52 airstrikes in Gaza between the collapse of the cease-fire and 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, a military spokesman said. The Israeli strikes came after Gaza-based militants resumed rocket fire around 4 p.m. Tuesday after a nine-day break, prompting Israel to withdraw its delegation from Cairo, where talks toward a more durable truce had deadlocked. The bloody monthlong battle has taken the lives of 64 Israeli soldiers and three civilians, one a foreign farmworker.
Mr. Qedra said Wednesday morning that one of those attacks killed seven people, including a pregnant woman, in the Al-Louh family home in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah. By noon Wednesday, the Israeli military had counted more than 100 rockets fired from Gaza since the collapse of the cease-fire. Most of the rockets were aimed at southern Israel, though a few reached Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where one fell in open ground around midnight, according to the Israeli military. Micky Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the Israel Police, said several rockets had been intercepted over the southern cities of Ashkelon and Ashdod on Wednesday morning, and that one hit an empty house in the Ashkelon area, causing damage but no injuries.
More than 2,000 Palestinians have been killed in the bloody battle, most of them civilians, according to the Health Ministry and human rights groups. On the Israeli side, 64 soldiers and three civilians, one of them a foreign farmworker, have been killed. Israel conducted scores of airstrikes across Gaza overnight and into Wednesday. Mr. Qedra said seven people, including a pregnant woman, were killed in an early-morning attack on the al-Louh family home in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah.
Egypt has been attempting to broker a cease-fire since the war’s first week. Those efforts intensified in recent days but apparently failed to make real progress. Hamas, and a broader Palestinian delegation including the moderate, secular Fatah Party of the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, had demanded the reopening of all border crossings, the removal of Israeli restrictions on trade, the building of a Gaza seaport and the revival of a defunct airport in the coastal territory. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, declined to provide specifics about the strikes other than to say they were aimed at “Hamas terrorist infrastructure.”
“The mission is ongoing,” Colonel Lerner said. “It never ended. There was a break while the negotiations were ongoing.” Asked about the goals of the new round of strikes, he answered, “To restore safety and security to the state of Israel.”
Israel returned to a war footing on Wednesday, with large gatherings banned and some beaches, parks and camps in the south closed. Residents were warned to stay close to bomb shelters, and Mr. Rosenfeld said the police had stepped up patrols in the Tel Aviv area.
Mr. Deif, who is believed to be about 50 years old, has topped Israel’s most-wanted list since at least 1996. He took over the Qassam Brigades in 2002 after its previous commander was killed by an Israeli bomb.
That same year, reports of Mr. Deif’s death in an Israeli strike were debunked. He is thought to have survived five separate Israeli attempts on his life, but is believed to have lost an eye and suffered a spinal injury.
Egypt has been attempting to broker a cease-fire since the first week of the conflict. Those efforts intensified in recent days but apparently failed to make real progress. Hamas, and a broader Palestinian delegation including the moderate, secular Fatah Party of the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, had demanded the reopening of all border crossings, the removal of Israeli restrictions on trade, the building of a Gaza seaport and the revival of a defunct airport in the coastal territory.
Israel had called for a demilitarization of Gaza under international supervision.Israel had called for a demilitarization of Gaza under international supervision.
Some people briefed on the talks had said that negotiators agreed last week to set these broader goals aside for a month and focus an initial agreement on the reconstruction of Gaza, where thousands of homes, businesses and other properties have been destroyed. But the initial agreement never came. Some people briefed on the talks had said that negotiators agreed last week to set these broader goals aside for a month and to focus an initial agreement on the reconstruction of Gaza, where thousands of homes, businesses and other properties have been destroyed. But the initial agreement never came.
Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s foreign minister, seized on the collapse of the Cairo talks to reiterate his call for a more aggressive assault to topple Hamas from Gaza.
“I hope that now it is clear to everyone that the policy of ‘quiet will be answered with quiet’ means that Hamas is the initiator, and that it is the one that decides when, where and how much it fires on the residents of Israel, whereas we make do with only a response that, even if it is powerful, is still just a response,” Mr. Lieberman wrote on his Facebook page. “When we’re talking seriously about the security of the residents of Israel, we need to understand that there isn’t any option other than a resolute Israeli initiative that spells one thing – bringing about Hamas’s surrender.”