15 martyred including Al-Zahar’s son in Gaza attack

The number of casualties of the Israeli crackdown on Zeitoun, east of Gaza Strip since the early morning rose to 15 martyrs and 45 injured.

Aljazeera.net correspondent said that Hossam, the son of the top leader in the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas) and the Foreign Minister in the previous national Unity Government Mahmoud Al-Zahar has been martyred in an Israeli land and air attack on the east of Gaza City .

And Hossam is the second son of Al-Zahar who is martyred after his older son who was martyred in an Israeli bombardment that targeted his house before about three years .

Aljazeera correspondent in Gaza Samir Abu Shamala pointed out that five of the injured are in very critical conditions and that five of the martyrs belong to Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas movement.

Sources in Zeitoun district confirmed a heavy exchange of fire took place between occupation soldiers and Palestinian resistance militants who faced the invading Israeli forces

Eyewitnesses confirmed that an Israeli helicopter fired at least one missile while tanks fired several artillery shells that caused “deaths and injuries”.

Aljazeera correspondent said that Israeli tanks which are penetrating deeply into east of Zeitoun district fired several artillery shells and opened a heavy fire on houses of the residents.

An Israeli special force is combing and scooping the area close to the borders with the strip and other armored vehicles penetrated deeply into Beit Hanoun crossing, north of Gaza, and are combing and scooping the industrial zone close to the crossing.

For its part, Israeli occupation forces (IOF) pointed out that IOF soldiers clashed with Palestinian militants who approached them, and that its operations targeted what it called houses which are used in firing missiles at Israel.

In another development, according to Hebrew newspaper Haartz, Israeli authorities started to build 60 new settlement units east of Jerusalem.

This new settlement step is expected to affect the course of the final status negotiations which were launched yesterday by both the Palestinian team headed by Ahmed Qurei and the Israeli one headed by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who held a meeting in West Jerusalem that lasted for more than three hours.