Gaza City: Israeli warplanes struck Gaza, killing the wife and child of Hamas’s top military chief, the Islamist movement said on Wednesday after truce talks in Cairo collapsed in a storm of violence. It was not immediately clear whether Mohammed Deif himself, who has topped Israel’s most wanted list for decades, was killed or wounded in the strike which hit a house in Gaza City. Later, however, Hamas said that its military commander was alive and still calling the shots in the ongoing war with Israel in and around Gaza. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri also issued a statement, saying Israelis would not be safe until Deif decided so.
“The occupation will pay for its crimes against Palestinian civilians and those living around the Gaza border will not return home until Mohammed Deif decides so,” he said. Earlier, Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called for military action to topple Hamas, saying the Islamist movement was clearly dictating the pace of the confrontation. Hamas vowed bloody revenge, saying Israel had “opened the gates of hell”.
