Israeli killed, 11 wounded by Grad missile

One Israeli was killed on Monday while eleven others were hurt in a Palestinian Grad missile explosion near a construction site in the coastal town of Ashkelon. Haaretz is reporting that all of the wounded are construction workers from the Galilee village of Manda. Four of the wounded are in moderate condition while five suffered light injuries. Israeli killed, 11 wounded by Grad missile At least nine rockets have been fired into Israel since Monday morning, five which hit Ashkelon and four others which struck various towns in the western Negev. No injuries or damage have been reported in the other attacks. "I'm standing next to the body," Ashkelon Mayor Benny Vaknin told Israel Radio by telephone, on the third day of an Israeli air offensive in the Gaza Strip. "To my great regret, we have a fatality. He was killed." Israel on Monday bombed the Islamic University and a government compound in Gaza City, key centers of Hamas power, in the third day of its aerial assault on the . Witnesses saw fire and smoke at the university, counting six separate airstrikes there just after midnight. Other targets were a guest palace used by the Hamas government and the house next to Gaza Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh's home in a refugee camp adjacent to Gaza City. He was not home, as Hamas leaders have gone into hiding. In the southern town of Rafah, Palestinians said a toddler and his two teenage brothers were killed in an airstrike aimed at a Hamas commander. IAF warplanes bombed the Hamas-run Interior Ministry in Gaza on Monday, the first air strike that targeted a government building in Israel's offensive, the Palestinian faction said. No immediate word was available on whether there were any casualties. At first light Monday, strong winds blew black smoke from the bombed sites in Gaza City over deserted streets. The air hummed with the buzz of pilotless drones and the roar of jets, punctuated by the explosions of new airstrikes. IAF warplanes pounded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip for a third consecutive day on Monday and Israel prepared to launch a possible invasion after killing 307 Palestinians in the air raids. Mark Regev, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said the military action would go on until the population in southern Israel "no longer live in terror and in fear of constant rocket barrages". "(The operation could) take many days," said Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Avi Benayahu. Gaza on Sunday (FoNet)

Israeli killed, 11 wounded by Grad missile

At least nine rockets have been fired into Israel since Monday morning, five which hit Ashkelon and four others which struck various towns in the western Negev. No injuries or damage have been reported in the other attacks.

"I'm standing next to the body," Ashkelon Mayor Benny Vaknin told Israel Radio by telephone, on the third day of an Israeli air offensive in the Gaza Strip. "To my great regret, we have a fatality. He was killed."

Israel on Monday bombed the Islamic University and a government compound in Gaza City, key centers of Hamas power, in the third day of its aerial assault on the . Witnesses saw fire and smoke at the university, counting six separate airstrikes there just after midnight.

Other targets were a guest palace used by the Hamas government and the house next to Gaza Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh's home in a refugee camp adjacent to Gaza City. He was not home, as Hamas leaders have gone into hiding.

In the southern town of Rafah, Palestinians said a toddler and his two teenage brothers were killed in an airstrike aimed at a Hamas commander.

IAF warplanes bombed the Hamas-run Interior Ministry in Gaza on Monday, the first air strike that targeted a government building in Israel's offensive, the Palestinian faction said.

No immediate word was available on whether there were any casualties.

At first light Monday, strong winds blew black smoke from the bombed sites in Gaza City over deserted streets. The air hummed with the buzz of pilotless drones and the roar of jets, punctuated by the explosions of new airstrikes.

IAF warplanes pounded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip for a third consecutive day on Monday and Israel prepared to launch a possible invasion after killing 307 Palestinians in the air raids.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said the military action would go on until the population in southern Israel "no longer live in terror and in fear of constant rocket barrages".

"(The operation could) take many days," said Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Avi Benayahu.