GAZA: An Israeli plane bombed the vacated house on Wednesday of a top adviser to Hamas's prime minister, local residents said.
In an eight-day-old bombing campaign, Israel has hit numerous government buildings operated by Hamas, the Islamist group that governs Gaza, and has also targeted countless militants. But it had previously spared Hamas's political hierarchy, locals said.
An Israeli warplane first fired a warning missile towards the house of Essam al-Daalees, who works closely with Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.
Shortly afterwards it scored a direct hit on the building, in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, flattening the property. Medics reported that one passerby was wounded, adding that the house had been evacuated earlier.
"The government will continue to carry on its duties and the occupation will eventually be defeated," Daalees was quoted as saying by a Hamas radio station after the strike.
Israel said it launched the offensive to halt repeated rocket attacks out of the coastal enclave. Some 139 Palestinians have died in the violence, more than half of them civilians, while four Israel civilians and one soldier have also died. (Reuters)
