Palestinian PM condemns Israeli attacks on Gaza

Newly-inaugurated Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haneya on Tuesday condemns escalated Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip that killed two Palestinians earlier in the day.

Haneya told reporters in Gaza that the intensified Israeli military acts were targeting the Palestinian people as well as the new Hamas-led government.

"Israel is sending a message to Abu Mazen (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) and to the new cabinet, aiming to complicate the Palestinian situation and divert the cabinet from devoting time for internal issues," said Haneya.

But he stressed that his Hamas cabinet would stand firm to defend the Palestinian people's legitimate rights.

Earlier on Tuesday, two Palestinian civilians were killed and eight others wounded in an Israeli shelling on a small northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya.

The Israeli army has no immediate comment.

The deadly shelling came in the wake of an Israeli airstrike on a largely empty Palestinian security installation, not far away from the office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Gaza City.

Tuesday's Israeli attacks on Gaza are seen as a retaliation move for earlier Palestinian militant rocket launchings onto the coastal Israeli town of Ashkelon. No casualties were caused in the rocket attacks.

The escalation of violence came as Hamas, or the Islamic Resistance Movement, formally swore in its cabinet on March 29. The group has publicly called for Israel's destruction.

Source: Xinhua