Israel on high alert after Gaza shelling

Israeli police Thursday were on high alert with more than 80 terror warnings after a lethal shelling on the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, Israel Army Radio reported.

The warnings that Israeli security forces have gathered from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank include suicide bombings, shootings, rocket attacks and kidnapping, the report said.

"Fifteen of the warnings were specific," head of Police Operations Division Barti Ohayon was quoted as saying.

Following the strike in Gaza that left 19 Palestinians dead, alert levels were raised nationwide.

Police will focus on crowded places and set more road blocks, Ohayon added.

Early Wednesday morning, Israeli artillery shells struck Beit Hanoun, killing at least 19 Palestinians and wounding dozens of others. Eight children and four women were among the dead.

The killing has drawn condemnation, while some Palestinian resistance groups vowed to avenge the bloodshed.

A senior Fatah official Wednesday urged the organization's military wing, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, to carry out suicide bombings against Israeli civilian targets to avenge the Beit Hanoun incident.

"I call on all the armed groups everywhere to avenge the blood of the dead with suicide bombings against Israeli civilians, as Israel murders Palestinians," said Jamal Abed, who heads Fatah in northern Gaza Strip.

Source: Xinhua