Telegraph.co.uk
By Murray Wardrop
Published: 1:28PM BST 02 Apr 2010
Warplanes and helicopters struck several targets believed by the Israeli military to be weapons factories and stores in the most significant operation since last January's assault.
Hamas security officials said a cheese factory and a film-making complex were in fact among the sites hit and three children were reportedly injured.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: ''We are concerned by today's strikes and the escalation of violence in Gaza and southern Israel over the past week.
''We call on all parties to show restraint.
"We encourage Israelis and Palestinians to focus efforts on negotiation and to engage urgently in US-backed proximity talks.''
The air strikes come after the latest in a string of rocket attacks from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip into southern Israel.
Four of the strikes took place near the town of Khan Younis, where two Israeli soldiers were killed in clashes with Palestinian gunmen last week.
Two of the missiles hit a guard post of Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades.
Helicopters also struck twice in the central refugee camp of Nusseirat, destroying a metal foundry, it was reported.
In two other air raids, Israeli fighters targeted points in the west of Gaza City, completely destroying a cheese factory in the Sabra district, said witnesses.
Three children, aged two, four and 11, were hit by flying debris in the raid, said Moawiya Hassanein, head of the Palestinian emergency services in Gaza.
Israel says the operation was targeting four weapons factories.
Late on Thursday, a Palestinian short-range rocket landed in Israel, causing no casualties, the military said. There was no claim of responsibility.
The latest violence is the most serious since the end of Israel's 22-day assault on Gaza in January 2009, in which more than 1,400 Gazans reportedly died and 13 Israelis were killed.
The Israeli offensive was designed to counter rocket attacks from militants in Gaza but they have resumed sporadically in recent weeks, provoking regular Israeli air strikes.
The fresh attacks, carried out in the early hours of Friday, signal Israel’s toughening stance in response to any evidence of militant activity in Gaza.
In a statement, the Israeli military said Israel would "not tolerate terrorist activity inside Gaza that threatens Israeli citizens".
It said the attacks had hit "a weapons manufacturing site in the northern Gaza Strip, a weapons manufacturing site in the central Gaza Strip and two weapons storage facilities in the southern Gaza Strip."
Palestinian militants have fired nearly 20 rockets and mortars into Israel in the last month, according to the army, including one attack that killed a Thai labourer on March 18.
In recent days, Israeli ground forces have also clashed with Palestinian militants along the border with Israel.
Palestinian news agencies reported that Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets over parts of Gaza on Thursday warning residents of retaliation for last Friday's killings of the soldiers in Khan Younis.
They were the first Israeli soldiers to be killed in hostile fire in Gaza in over a year. The military wing of Hamas has claimed responsibility for those attacks.
Tensions in the region have been heightened recently after the Israeli government announced plans to build 1,600 new homes for Jewish people in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as a capital of a future state.
The US has criticised the project, which prompted the Palestinians to pull out of US-brokered indirect peace talks.
Note: I realize this news is a few days old, but it pays to read the admonishments towards Israel, from the U.K. ...!! Just makes one wonder why Israel must "restrain" from protecting its citizens, while the Hamas Terrorist organizaiton continues launching rockets. How long did it take Great Britain to respond when they were threatened by the continuous bombs over London in WWII? Britian's children were sent into the country side, to protect them during the war. Where do Israel's children go to protect them from the rockets? .... oh, maybe Hamas gets a free pass and this is not a war on terror? If that is correct, then bring all America's troops home, since Islamic terrrorist should be given a "free" pass. Bee Sting
