NewsMax.com Wires
Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2006

Reprint Information

Book on Katie Couric Makes Waves White House: We're Not Subject to FOIA FBI Seeks 2 Mysterious Men on Ferry Publisher: Conservatives Do Read As Much As Liberals Romney Shrugs Off Mormon History Film

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israeli missile boats fired at the Gaza beach early Wednesday, hitting crafts and structures owned by a Palestinian known as the top arms smuggler in Gaza and Egypt, Palestinians said.

Palestinian security said 11 missiles hit two boats, an office, a car and a cabin owned by Abbas Beker next to the Gaza fishing dock. No one was hurt.

The military said the targets were facilities used by Palestinians to smuggle arms into Gaza.

Israel has been hitting Gaza hard by air, land and sea for a month, since a June 25 cross-border raid by Hamas-linked militants who killed two Israeli soldiers and captured a third.

Story Continues Below

Also early Wednesday, an Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a house in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, destroying the two-story building. Residents said it belonged to a Hamas activist, and the Israeli military gave 20 minutes warning to residents to clear the area. Three people were slightly wounded.

The military said it targeted a Hamas weapons store.

On Tuesday, Israel released one of the eight Palestinian Cabinet ministers that it seized in a June crackdown on the radical Hamas group, which controls the Palestinian government.

Palestinian Prisoners' Affairs Minister Wasfi Kibha was set free by an Israeli military court judge after a military prosecutor failed to produce charges against him, his attorney Mustafa Azmouti told The Associated Press.

Kibha was the third member of the Hamas government to be released since the West Bank roundup on June 29, four days after the cross-border attack from Gaza.

Israel still holds five Hamas ministers and dozens of Hamas lawmakers. The Palestinian militants have released no information on the condition of the captured soldier, 19-year-old Cpl. Gilad Shalit, believed to be hidden in southern Gaza.

© 2006 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Editor's note:
"Land of the Free, Home of the Brave" T-Shirts – Click Here Now
Ronald Reagan & God – Get the true story and the book FREE – Click Here Now!
Iran`s Clerics Plan a Nuclear Showdown with the U.S. - Click Here!

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Israel
Middle East