Haaretz"The Israel Air Force fired missiles at the Gaza home of a Hamas lawmaker Sunday evening, leaving at least eight Palestinians dead, hospital officials reported. At least four of the eight dead were civilians.
The home belonged to Khalil al-Haya, a Hamas representative in the Palestinian parliament. The IAF missile hit a room used as a meeting place for the extended family, relatives said. Al-Haya was lightly wounded in the attack.
Seven of those killed were members of al-Haya's family, ages 16 to 60. At least 13 people were hurt in the attack.
Following the attack, Israel Defense Forces sources said that the attack had not been an attempt to assassinate al-Haya. They said the IAF had fired at Hamas militants who had been outside the house. IDF sources maintain that only three of the eight Palestinians killed in the attack had been civilians, and the remaining five had been militants active in the Hamas military wing.
Among the dead were al-Haya's 60-year-old father, Nimer al-Haya, and his sixteen-year-old relative Mohammed al-Haya.
Al-Haya had been one of the Hamas representatives in cease-fire talks with Hamas and returned home from an Egyptian-sponsored truce meeting shortly before the attack.
...Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said the dead were civilian members of the al-Haya family, and the attack was a sign that Israel is targeting everyone - civilians and leaders. "This escalation is very serious, he said. All options are open for responding to this."
...This strike is the first time in two years that the IDF has targeted a non-military wing member of Hamas. The attack was carried out hours after the security cabinet decided to "intensify operational measures" in the Gaza Strip in a bid to halt heightened rocket fire against southern Israel, a government official said.
...The cabinet threatened that if Hamas attacks on Israel continue it would consider expanding targeted killings to include Hamas political leaders, however, after the IAF attack on the lawmaker's home, the IDF stressed that it had not yet changed its policy and was not targeting Hamas politicians."
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The title of my post I hope clearly indicates how much credibility I place on the IDF claims that it did not target al-Haya in the bombing. For more commentary on this article read my
blog post.
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