2008 Woodie Awards
Israel strikes targets in Gaza
Highest death toll since March leaves at least 23 dead
By: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Issue date: 4/17/08 Section: World
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israel struck hard against targets in Gaza on yesterday, killing at least 20 Palestinians in a day of heavy fighting that also saw three Israeli soldiers die in a brazen Hamas ambush.
Among the Palestinian dead was a news cameraman.
The surge in violence came after a relatively quiet month and threatened to unravel an Egyptian effort to mediate a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
Yesterday's death toll was the highest since an Israeli military offensive in early March that killed more than 120 Gazans, including dozens of civilians. Since then, Israel and Hamas appeared to be honoring an informal truce, though punctuated with Palestinian rocket attacks, some Israeli airstrikes and border skirmishes.
That changed dramatically yesterday with no apparent trigger, indicating the relative calm was more coincidence than plan.
In the day's deadliest attack, an Israeli helicopter fired four missiles at targets near the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, witnesses said. At least 12 Palestinians, including five children aged 12-15, were killed, said Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana was killed while filming Israeli tank movements, apparently in an airstrike in the same area. Two bystanders also died.
Other cameramen who rushed to the scene said they saw the Reuters jeep on fire, and Shana's body lying next to it. They said his jeep was marked "press" and that the cameraman was wearing an identifying flak jacket.
As colleagues rushed toward Shana, another missile was fired, said Wissam Nassar, a photographer with the Maan news agency. "There was an airstrike. We were thrown back, myself and another person."
Dozens of Palestinian journalists converged on the hospital where Shana was pronounced dead. Shocked, many still carrying their cameras, they wept and leaned on each other for support.
The Palestinian Journalists Union called a one-day strike for Thursday to protest the killing.
Among the Palestinian dead was a news cameraman.
The surge in violence came after a relatively quiet month and threatened to unravel an Egyptian effort to mediate a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
Yesterday's death toll was the highest since an Israeli military offensive in early March that killed more than 120 Gazans, including dozens of civilians. Since then, Israel and Hamas appeared to be honoring an informal truce, though punctuated with Palestinian rocket attacks, some Israeli airstrikes and border skirmishes.
That changed dramatically yesterday with no apparent trigger, indicating the relative calm was more coincidence than plan.
In the day's deadliest attack, an Israeli helicopter fired four missiles at targets near the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, witnesses said. At least 12 Palestinians, including five children aged 12-15, were killed, said Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana was killed while filming Israeli tank movements, apparently in an airstrike in the same area. Two bystanders also died.
Other cameramen who rushed to the scene said they saw the Reuters jeep on fire, and Shana's body lying next to it. They said his jeep was marked "press" and that the cameraman was wearing an identifying flak jacket.
As colleagues rushed toward Shana, another missile was fired, said Wissam Nassar, a photographer with the Maan news agency. "There was an airstrike. We were thrown back, myself and another person."
Dozens of Palestinian journalists converged on the hospital where Shana was pronounced dead. Shocked, many still carrying their cameras, they wept and leaned on each other for support.
The Palestinian Journalists Union called a one-day strike for Thursday to protest the killing.
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