AM - War looms in Israel, Palestinian Territories
AM - Friday, 13 June , 2003 08:00:48
Reporter: Mark Willacy
ELEANOR HALL: Another deadly Israeli helicopter gunship attack and dire warnings from both Palestinians and Israelis of even more carnage have torn the Middle East peace Road Map apart, barely a week after it was signed.
In their fifth missile strike in three days in Gaza, Israeli forces overnight launched another helicopter attack, this one killing seven people including a senior Hamas leader, his wife and his young child.
Just hours earlier, in a dramatic escalation of the conflict, Israel had ordered its army to "completely wipe-out" the militant Islamic movement Hamas, the group which claimed responsibility for yesterday's suicide bombing in Jerusalem. And Israel is also threatening to pull out of the US sponsored Road Map to Middle East peace if Palestinian attacks against its citizens do not stop.
For its part, Hamas says it's now activated all its military cells to target Israeli civilians and it has issued a warning to all foreigners to leave the region.
From Jerusalem, Middle East Correspondent Mark Willacy reports.
(screaming Palestinians)
MARK WILLACY: Standing on the smouldering wreckage of a car, Palestinian men pull the body of a young child out of the twisted mess.
Just seconds earlier an Israeli helicopter gunship had appeared overhead, unleashing its payload of missiles.
Inside the car was Yasser Taha, a senior leader in the military wing of Hamas, long wanted by Israel.
Killed along with him were his wife, at least one of his young children and several bystanders.
This is the third time in just 24 hours Israeli missiles have been launched at Hamas targets in Gaza.
RAANAN GISSIN: This is a war. We did not choose that war. For two-and-a-half years we've been fighting this war.
MARK WILLACY: And Sharon Government Spokesman Raanan Gissin says Israel will now take the war into Hamas territory.
Setting the stage for a possible invasion of the Gaza Strip, Israel's army has been ordered to "completely wipe out" Hamas.
The order directs the military to use whatever means necessary and to target everyone from the lowliest member of the group to its spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin.
MAHMOUD AL-ZAHAR: Okay, let us wait and see who is going to destroy the other.
MARK WILLACY: Hamas Spokesman Mahmoud al-Zahar says the Gaza Strip will be turned into a graveyard for the Israeli Army should it decide to invade.
MAHMOUD AL-ZAHAR: We have to run an effective army struggle against everybody. Now this message would be sent for every Israeli. Your children and your women, your husbands, everybody is a target now.
MARK WILLACY: Hamas has issued a statement warning all foreigners to leave Israel for their own safety.
George W. Bush's so-called Road Map to Middle East peace is now quickly unravelling.
On the Israeli side, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom is threatening to pull the plug on the process altogether.
SILVAN SHALOM: If this terrorist attacks will continue, I think that we won't be able to continue in the same time with the peace process.
MARK WILLACY: And if Israel decides to take on Hamas on its own turf it will get a fight.
(Hamas boys chanting, guns firing)
The Islamic movement has a well-armed militia and its Gaza stronghold is a nest of narrow alleys and tightly-packed buildings.
Sarri Singer is a survivor of Wednesday's suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus carried out by Hamas. Like many Israelis she believes the Road Map to peace is finished.
SARRI SINGER: It's not going to stop and I don't believe there is ever going to be peace. They want total control over Israel and I don't think anyone in the United States understands that.
MARK WILLACY: Here, there is nothing but trepidation, as Israelis brace themselves for the next suicide bombing and Palestinians prepare for the inevitable missile strike.
This is Mark Willacy in Jerusalem for AM.
An elderly Palestinian bids farewell Thursday to one of the people killed by Israeli airstrikes taking place over the past two days.
Israel vows new strikes on Hamas - Jun. 12, 2003 - CNN.com
The airstrike, the fifth in three days, killed seven people, including Yasser Taha, his wife and his 3-year-old daughter, Palestinian sources said.
The Israeli military did not know the militant's family was in the car when the helicopter gunships fired at it, the Israeli source said.
A statement from the Israel Defense Forces said Taha was "one of the senior commanders of the military wing of Hamas in Gaza [Izzedine al-Qassam]" and "was involved actively and intensively in murderous attacks, smuggling of weapons and directing vicious terrorists cells."
"MAHMOUD AL-ZAHAR: We have to run an effective army struggle against everybody. Now this message would be sent for every Israeli. Your children and your women, your husbands, everybody is a target now."
From your number six post.
All I can say is, so what, this is nothing new.