Israel launches two air strikes across Gaza

Israel launched two air strikes against militant targets across the Gaza Strip early on Thursday, demolishing two buildings used by Palestinian militants but causing no casualties, sources on both sides said.In the first incident, an Israeli missile ploughed into the home of a Palestinian militant in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, causing massive damage to the building, witnesses said.

The missile struck the home of Amer Karmut, a militant with the Popular Resistance Committees, security sources said, although medical sources said only one person was lightly injured in the blast. Shortly afterwards, another Israeli missile slammed into a three-storey building in centre of the southern city of Rafah which lies on the border with Egypt, witnesses and security sources said.

The building, which housed the offices of a charity run by the radical Islamic Jihad, suffered heavy damage but there were no reports of any casualties, they said.

It was the second time within six months that the charity had been targeted in an Israeli air raid.

An army spokesperson confirmed both strikes, saying the first had targeted a structure in Jabaliya refugee camp which was "used by the Popular Resistance Committees for storing weapons".

The second air raid "targeted an office in Rafah used by Islamic Jihad for terrorist activity," she said. The two raids came just hours after a series of similar strikes against two vehicles in Gaza City, which left four militants dead, all of them members of the Popular Resistance Committees.One of those strikes targeted a top Islamic Jihad leader, but he escaped unharmed, reports Ireland Online. I.L.