An Israeli helicopter struck a white Subaru in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City on Thursday evening, killing two people, Palestinian medics said.
The Islamic Jihad said one of the dead men, Hazem Yasser Rahim, 24, was a field commander in the group. The second was not immediately identified.
Witnesses said that the missile cut the vehicle in two.
Early Thursday, Israeli occupation troops wounded a Palestinian child and demolished three houses in the Gaza Strip city of Rafah, WAFA and witnesses said.
Local sources reported that Israeli soldiers, backed by tanks and armored personnel carriers, stormed al-Sho'ot neigbourhood, and opened heavy machine gunfire at houses, wounding a Palestinian child and causing extreme damages into these houses.
WAFA reported that Israeli soldiers broke into some houses and launched a search campaign, forcing inhabitants to leave, adding that Israeli engineering unit planted dynamites in three houses, and then blew them up, leaving their owners homeless.
Elsewhere, Israeli soldiers arrested three Palestinians in Kahn Younes, in the south of Gaza Strip.
Eyewitnesses said that Israeli soldiers closed al-Matahen checkpoint, which connects the south of the Strip to its north.
Meanwhile, Israeli tanks and bulldozers moved into al-Sekka street and besieged a house which belongs to Said al-Masri, turning it into military post.
Early on Thursday, Israeli Apache helicopters fired at least three missiles at a metal workshop in the western part of Khan Younis. Witnesses said that the Apache air strike targeted a local Palestinian metal workshop belongs to Mahmoud Salhiya, adding that huge explosions were heard and the workshop was damaged.
Medical sources reported that there were no injuries.
In another development, the Israeli left-wing "Peace Now" movement claimed on Thursday that in the past two months, 445,000 square meters were added to the settlements in the West bank and the Gaza Strip.
Peace Now has been operating photography flights, which record changes in the structure of the settlement outposts. These flights are carried out once a month.
The Latest Peace Now report, unveiled in a press conference in Tel Aviv, indicated that more than 190,000 square meters were added to settlements in the Gaza Strip, while most of the changes were in the preparation of fields for agricultural purposes. The biggest expansion was recorded in the Gaza Strip settlement of Bnei Atzmona – 113,000 sq. m.
According to the report, settlements in the West Bank also expanded by 265,000 sq.m. In the settlement of Sa-Nor, near Jenin, four caravans have been positioned.
"All over the territories more than 3,100 housing units are being built, as well as the preparation for another few thousand housing units," a movement representative was quoted as saying by Maariv. (albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
