Hamas leader killed in air strike (Revised with correct article)

Hamas - the Islamist group which controls the territory - named the dead militant as Issa Batran, 42 - a commander of the group's military wing in central Gaza and a rocket maker.

The military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, said eight other Hamas supporters and three civilians were also injured in air strikes on a Hamas military training camp in Gaza City, smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border and a target outside a central Gaza refugee camp.

www.bbc.co.uk...

[edit on 31-7-2010 by InvisibleAlbatross]

Now will this help the move toward peace (unlikely) or will it only increase attacks on Israel?

Since article is from 2009, we pretty much know it did not promote peace.
Maybe you mean this?

timesofindia.indiatimes.com...

reply to post by ZeroKnowledge




Was reading multiple articles, posted wrong one. Thanks

Is this the correct article? CNN posted this article about a Hamas leader dieing in an air strike. Tell me if this is the correct article.
www.cnn.com...

reply to post by Romantic_Rebel


My OP was the wrong article. I rewrote it with the correct information. Your article is also right. It was my mistake.

reply to post by InvisibleAlbatross


No problem. Everyone makes mistakes! Glad to help out in this awesome thread. Thanks for sharing the news and keeping an ear out.

If this was the only person killed, I think it is a whole lot better that Israel's past actions that have also killed innocents. Though I am still against "targetted" rocket attacks, there simply is no way a missile can be targetted to kill only the intended victim.

Israeli Airstrike Kills a Hamas Official

A commander of the Hamas military wing was killed in an Israeli missile strike in central Gaza early Saturday, according to the Islamist militant group.

The Israeli military said its warplanes had struck several sites in northern, central and southern Gaza in retaliation for a rocket fired by Gaza militants on Friday that struck the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon.

Both the rocket attack, which caused some property damage but no injuries, and the Israeli response signify some of the sharpest escalations in tension since the end of Israel’s three-week military offensive against Hamas in Gaza in the winter of 2008-9.

The military wing of Hamas identified the dead commander as Essa al-Batran, 40, from the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. It said in a statement that Mr. Batran’s wife and five of his children were killed when Israeli war planes fired on his home during the Gaza war.

The Israeli military said on Saturday that it had struck a weapons-manufacturing warehouse in central Gaza, a site linked with Hamas militant activity in northern Gaza and a weapons smuggling tunnel in the south.

Hamas said that eight of its supporters and three civilians also were wounded in the airstrikes overnight, according to The Associated Press.

There has been a significant reduction in rocket fire from Gaza against southern Israel since the end of the campaign. The last time a rocket struck inside Ashkelon, a city of 125,000 about 10 miles north of Gaza, was in February 2009.

Friday’s rocket attack came only a day after the Arab League in Cairo endorsed a resumption of direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, although it left the timing up to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas’s rival, whose authority is now limited to the West Bank. Hamas opposes any resumption of direct peace talks.

Gaza is controlled by Hamas, which won elections in 2006 and, after months of internecine fighting, took full command of the Palestinian coastal enclave in 2007.

This one is today's - 31st July 2010

[edit on 31-7-2010 by john124]

my biggest question is:

where did Israel get the intel for this airstrike???

Is there a mole in the hole ???

Glad a terrorist was taken out and no civilians killed....

Originally posted by boondock-saint
my biggest question is:

where did Israel get the intel for this airstrike???

Is there a mole in the hole ???

Israel has many spies in Gaza and Lebanon like any nation would do if they are at war. Also they use alot of drones to carry out observation.

I'm just glad civilians were not killed. A death is sad however but it's war.

Too bad a resistance freedom fighter was assassinated by the apartheid Nazi regime. Hopefully a new freedom fighter will take his place. Afterall, the executions by Nazi's did not stop their downfall, did it?

reply to post by Crimson_King


Someone randomly launching rockets into civilian populations is not a resistance fighter; he is a terrorist. It would be different if he was fighting the Israeli army.

[edit on 31-7-2010 by InvisibleAlbatross]

reply to post by InvisibleAlbatross


Proof that he launched random rockets on civilian areas? I can provide you proof that Israel launched random white phosphorous attacks on civilian areas, can you? So who is the terrorist here!!

reply to post by Crimson_King


He was the head of the military wing. Who has been launching rockets into Israel?

Nobody said Israel was right, but what this guy did was wrong.

reply to post by InvisibleAlbatross

Nobody said Israel was right

So doesn't that mean a terrorist launching attack on other terrorist? Also Hamas has not launched any rockets since Gaza war before they were provoked by Israel to do so...so why this assassination by a terrorist regime?