Israel kills six in Gaza, hits rocket factories

GAZA, July 24: Israeli shells killed six people and wounded several others in the Gaza Strip today, including two members of the same family who were travelling on a donkey cart when they were hit, Palestinian witnesses said.

The two killed by a shell which hit the donkey cart were a 60-year-old woman and her 12-year-old grandson, medics said.

The three other Palestinians were killed standing outside an apartment building in the northern Gaza neighbourhood of Beit Lahiya, where militants frequently fire rockets at Israel.

Two were civilians and the third was an off-duty police officer, residents said.

An Israeli tank shell fired at a housing block later today killed a five-year-old girl and wounded three other children in the area, medics said.

Israel has killed around 121 Palestinians in a nearly month-long offensive in Gaza to force militants to release a captured soldier and halt rocket fire on Israeli cities.

Germany said today it was optimistic about progress on the release of abducted Corporal Gilad Shalit after its foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, visited the region.

''We have a certain hope that these efforts may lead to a result in the foreseeable future,'' said a German spokesman, praising Egypt and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Israel asked Germany to help free two other Israeli soldiers whose capture by Hizbollah guerrillas was one of the triggers of an Israeli military onslaught in Lebanon. German intelligence helped mediate a hostage exchange with Hizbollah in 2004.

ISRAELI WARNING An Israeli army spokeswoman said artillery rounds were fired today at Palestinian militants launching Qassam rockets into Israel from heavily populated civilian areas in northern Gaza. ''We have distributed leaflets warning civilians to leave areas from where Qassam rockets are fired. The terror organisations purposely fire Qassam rockets at Israel from areas that are crowded with civilians,'' the army spokeswoman said.

Ismail Abu Shammala, the governor of the northern Gaza Strip said some residents had also received phone calls from the Israeli army telling them to flee because their houses would be targeted. An Israeli military source confirmed the calls.

Abu Shammala appealed for help: ''The international community should protect civilians in time of war.'' Earlier today, the Israeli army said Palestinian militants in northern Gaza fired at least six rockets into Israel, two of them landed near the coastal city of Ashkelon. Nobody was hurt in those attacks.

The Islamic Jihad militant group said it fired the two rockets at Ashkelon to mark a visit to the region by ''the Zionist Condoleezza Rice'', the US secretary of state.

''Let Rice go to hell,'' senior Hamas leader, Osama al-Muzaini, told Reuters, adding Rice was coming to put pressure on Arab leaders to back Israel against Hizbollah.

Overnight, Israel bombed buildings the army said were being used by militants to make rockets. The army said it warned residents to leave the buildings before the air strikes to try to avoid civilian casualties.

One of the targeted warehouses was being used by Islamic Jihad to manufacture and store missiles and ammunition, the Israeli army said. Palestinian sources confirmed the owner of the house was an Islamic Jihad member.

Israel also hit a facility used by Hamas to make rockets, the army said. Late today the army said it carried out another air strike against an arms store in eastern Gaza City.

REUTERS