Beach strike shakes Hamas cease-fire Seven Palestinians die while picnicking on beach JERUSALEM (CNN) -- An Israeli navy gunboat fired shells onto a northern Gaza beach Friday, killing at least seven people and prompting the military wing of Hamas to call off a 16-month-old cease-fire with Israel. The Israel Defense Forces said it was firing on rocket-launching areas in Gaza after a militant attack earlier in the day. The target areas were believed to be uninhabited, a representative said. A spokesman for Hamas, Sami Abu Zuhri, said it was "impossible to remain silent" after viewing "terrifying pictures of the women and children" on the beach. "These demonstrations emphasize the necessity of the renewal of the struggle," he said. (Watch the aftermath on the beach -- :46) A mass demonstration erupted in Gaza City, and protesters Friday evening were demanding revenge for recent attacks that include the beach shelling and Thursday's killing of a Hamas official in an Israeli missile strike. Palestinians were picnicking when the Israeli shells slammed into the beach, Palestinian medical sources said. About 20 people were injured in the attack, Palestinian security sources said. An apology was initially issued to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in which the IDF said it "regretted the strike on innocents," but Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, the IDF's chief of general staff, later said the military is investigating the possibility that it was not naval artillery that struck the beach. The IDF halted firing pending an investigation. Haaretz quoted Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as condemning the killings as a "bloody massacre." Video footage from the beach showed ambulance workers carrying away injured people on stretchers and a young girl screaming for a parent. Hamas has stuck to the cease-fire it announced in February 2005, but other groups did not sign on and have continued attacks against Israel. Earlier this year, Hamas won the Palestinian elections. Hamas and its military wing Izzedine al Qassam has admitted responsibility for terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians as well as attacks against the Israeli military. Israel and the U.S. State Department consider Hamas a terrorist organization, though it also operates an extensive social services network in the territories. Five militants also died earlier Friday in two Israeli strikes in Gaza, Palestinian sources said. The beach is in the Palestinian village of Beit Lahya. The IDF said militants launched a Qassam rocket from the village that landed in Israel but caused no damage or casualties. The militants got into a car, which the Israeli air force then attacked, according to the IDF. A large explosion followed, killing three people. The IDF said the blast was likely due to explosives in the car. The three dead were members of the Popular Resistance Committees, a coalition of militant groups, Palestinian security sources said. Palestinian sources said the dead included two brothers and a cousin. After the attack in Beit Lahya, a car was hit at Jabalya refuge camp, killing two militants, Palestinian sources said. Last summer, under then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Israel withdrew from Gaza, and Israeli forces forcibly removed about 8,000 settlers
A girl injured in the beach attack is treated at hospital <img src=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2006/06/09/umid.jpg> <img src=http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41747000/jpg/_41747964_cloth_afp203bo.jpg>
Why did they do that? WhY? The moment they so that that Hamas is sticking to their ceasefire, they decided to commit a massacre. I called an American friend of mine in Gaza not so far from there; he swore to me that there was complete calm in that area and then?....Death!! The Israeli government cares more about implementing their new reality on the ground than their own people. Hamas is coming, no question about that. Hamas will hit and ddd will come to us to claim that there is no partner for peace and therefore they have to impose the wall that is intended to choke us to death. To implement this agenda, they killed a whole family. Nazis take note from your masters of deceit!!
I am sure that there are bad apples amongst Israelites just like there is amongst Palestinians. Perhaps it was a renegade group of Israeli soldiers. Who ever it was, it is a real sad event. I hope every one can hold their calm and give peace a chance.
You Mr Drama Queen just had to use a tragedy to score a cheap point, did not you? Every normal and reasonable person (not you wael) understands that it was not intentional, that Israel did not target the family, everyone knows that that particular area is full of militants who are launching rocket attacks from there into Israel, everyone realizes that the legitimate palestinian authority does absolutely nothing to crack down on palestinian militants and those attacks. As long as Israel is attacked from Gaza they will retaliate and unfortunately hard as they try collateral damage is unavoidable, there will be innocent victims among both Israelis and Palestinians. Don't blame it on Israel though, blame it on those who attack Israel from Gaza and on the palestinian government unable, unwilling and not even trying to stop those attacks.
The 3,000 people who died on 9/11 were actually collateral damage. The terrorists only intended to blow up the buildings....
There were no militants in the buildings, no one launched rockets into Mekka from inside the WTC, people in those buildings did not plot to drive arabs/muslims into the sea or anywhere else for that matter. Can you say the same about Gaza?
Collateral damage is just that, an excuse for murder.... Is the Israel government now going to give the families of the dead $2,200 like the US government gives to Iraqi survivors who lost family due to "collateral damage?"
That's your interpretation and it certainly is not mainstream: collateral damage: inadvertent casualties and destruction inflicted on civilians in the course of military operations http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=collateral damage The key word here is "inadvertent".
Oh, mainstream is the right definition? Come one.... The terrorists inadvertently killed 3,000 when they crashed their planes into buildings intending only to blow up the buildings. Those that died were therefore collateral damage.