Israel Pounds Hamas Targets in Gaza Strip

Rice voices concern after retaliatory strikes kill militants, baby
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 28, 2008 11:15 AM CST
Israel Pounds Hamas Targets in Gaza Strip
Israeli residents of the Sderot block the main road leading to the town in protest after more than 30 rockets hit southern Israel Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008. A Palestinian rocket slammed into a college campus in Sderot on Wednesday, killing a student, and another exploded near a hospital in a coastal...   (Associated Press)

Israel hit targets inside the Gaza Strip today, including an apparent warning attack near the Hamas PM's home, after a rocket killed an Israeli student, Reuters reports. Two days of violence have left 17 Palestinians dead, including a 6-month-old baby who died when a strike on a Hamas-run ministry damaged nearby buildings. Condoleezza Rice decried the strikes' civilian toll after meeting with Israeli PM Ehud Olmert in Tokyo.

"I am concerned about the humanitarian conditions there and innocent people in Gaza who are being hurt," Rice said. Yesterday's attack by the Islamic group was the first to kill an Israeli in nine months, and Olmert made clear Israel would keep hitting back. "We will make the terrorists pay a very painful price," he vowed. (More Israel stories.)

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