(Reuters) Nidal al-Mughrabi and Allyn Fisher-Ilan - Israel launched an offensive against Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, bombing some 50 targets, including homes, in a campaign meant to end Palestinian rocket fire into the Jewish state. The Israeli military urged Israelis within a 40-km (24-mile) radius of the southern coastal territory to stay within reach of protected areas and ordered summer camps shut as a precaution against rocket fire. Gaza militants had fired more than 80 rockets at Israel on Monday and military officials said more than 200 rockets had been shot at Israel in the past month, an enormous increase in shootings. The IDF said it targeted about 50 sites in aerial and naval assaults. Palestinian officials said more than 30 of them were bombed before dawn, including two homes in southern Gaza, one of which was identified by a neighbor as belonging to a Hamas member. The Palestinian Interior Ministry said the family in the targeted home had received a telephone call from an Israeli intelligence officer asking them to leave the house because it would be bombed, and the family evacuated in time.
2014-07-08 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive