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CNN SATURDAY MORNING NEWS
Israeli Helicopter Fires Missile Into Gaza Strip
Aired August 30, 2003 - 09:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: CNN confirming now about this story that we have been following today, or at least this morning. Just moments ago, an Israeli helicopter was fired upon -- fired a missile, that is, at a car in a refugee camp in Gaza, Gaza Strip, right in the central part of the Gaza Strip there.
According to CNN, that is, at least one Palestinian has been killed. Not sure of the total number there. We want to get to our Matthew Chance in order to get a little more details on that. Matthew Chance joining us now in Gaza -- Matthew.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, thank you.
Details very sketchy, as you might imagine. This situation is just developing within the last few minutes. We're hearing from our sources within the Palestinian security services now that at least two people have been killed in this Israeli helicopter gunship rocket attack on a car that, as you mentioned, was driving through the El Barage (ph) refugee camp in the center of the Gaza Strip.
We also understand from those same sources that at least three people at this stage have been identified as being injured. It's not clear whether they were targeted by the Israeli gunship or whether they were bystanders.
What we do know, though, according to those Palestinian security officials, is that the two people who were killed were apparently members of the military wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, the Izzadin Kassam brigade.
This certainly fits into a pattern of what the Israelis call targeted killings of known militants. They have a list of these individuals. They've been approaching this in a pretty systematic fashion, identifying where they are and carrying out these strikes against the vehicles that they've been in.
If this is the case, and it does seem to be the case, according to these officials we've been speaking to, that brings to 10 the number of Hamas militants that have been killed in this very same way by the Israeli armed forces in just over a week.
So this is a very concerted campaign, it seems, by the Israeli forces, and one which, of course, follows a very devastating suicide bomb attack in Jerusalem just over a week ago, or about 10 days ago now, in which, of course, 21 Israelis were killed in that suicide attack. So that whole cycle of killing and counterattack really does now appear to be back in full swing.
COLLINS: All right, CNN's Matthew Chance coming to us live by telephone there, as you see, from Gaza. Matthew, thanks so much.
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