200 killed, 750 wounded in Israeli strikes against Gaza

Source: Xinhua | 12-28-2008 09:10

GAZA, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- Two hundred Palestinians were killed and 750 others wounded on Saturday in a series of rapid and intensive Israeli air strikes in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said.

Bodies of Palestinian Hamas policemen are scattered on the ground following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on December 27, 2008. About 200 Palestinians were killed and hundreds  wounded in a series of simultaneous Israeli air strikes in Gaza Strip. (Xinhua/Stringer)

"The number of martyrs reached 200 and the wounded people are 750, including a number of civilian women and children," said Mu' awia Hassanien, chief of emergency and ambulance services in the Palestinian health ministry.

Israel launched air strikes against the Gaza Strip from 11:30 a.m. local time (0930 GMT), hitting more than 30 targets, most of them security compounds run by the Islamic Hamas movement.

Bodies of Palestinian Hamas policemen are scattered on the ground following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on December 27, 2008. About 200 Palestinians were killed and hundreds  wounded in a series of simultaneous Israeli air strikes in Gaza Strip. (Xinhua/Stringer)

"It was like an earthquake. Within a few minutes hundreds were killed and injured and dozens of buildings and cars were completely destroyed," said Gaza storekeeper Ahmed Ghannam.

Most of the victims were members of Hamas security forces, including its police chief Tawfiq Jaber, chief of Hamas' Security and Protection Service Ismail al-Jabary and Central Gaza Strip governor Abu Ahmad Ashour.

The bodies of the killed were piled in the al-Shifa hospital's corridors because the morgue could not contain the large number of corpses.