Israeli helicopters fire missiles in Gaza

12.00pm

GAZA - Israeli helicopters fired at least nine missiles at targets in Gaza City just before midnight on Sunday (Monday 11am NZT), witnesses said, after two Palestinian suicide bombers killed 22 people in downtown Tel Aviv.

Palestinians in Gaza City reported seeing helicopters hovering overhead and then the missiles streaking into targets which could not immediately be identified by residents on the ground. There were no early reports of casualties.

The missile strike, launched after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened his security cabinet, appeared to be part of Israel's expected military response to Sunday's suicide bombings by a Tel Aviv bus station and nearby pedestrian mall.

The targets appeared to be in the middle of Gaza City, the largest city in Palestinian-ruled areas of the coastal strip which has a population of just over one million Palestinians.

The missiles cut through the night sky like red lasers, one resident said. Electricity suddenly went out and the entire city was plunged into darkness.

Palestinians also reported a build-up of Israeli armoured forces, with helicopters overhead, in the southern Gaza Strip refugee camp of Rafah.

The Israeli army had no immediate comment on their late evening actions, unleashed after Sharon assembled his security cabinet to discuss responses to the Tel Aviv attacks. Israeli radio said several options for military action were presented.

The bombings were the first such attacks in Israel for six weeks, coming just three weeks before a general election at which security concerns will be paramount in the minds of many Israeli voters more than two years into a Palestinian uprising.

The blasts, two minutes apart, tore through an area near the old bus station and a crowded mall nearby, leaving bodies strewn about, shops in ruins and people fleeing in panic from an area frequented by foreign workers in Israel's biggest city.

- REUTERS

Herald feature: The Middle East