Wednesday February 18, 2009 13:31 by Rami Almeghari - IMEMC&Agencies

Early Wednsday, Israeli occupation forces warplanes attacked the Gaza-Egypt border line in southern Gaza and shelled a  police post in the nearby Khan Younis town.

Medical sources reported that no injuries, but an elderly woman was pronounced dead of a heart attack, apparently due to severe bombings on the Gaza-Egypt border line, where the Israeli warplanes struck several underground tunnels.

Dr. Mohammad Sobh, director of the local hospital of Abu Yousuf Al-Najjar, was quoted as saying that Huda Abu Tahla, age 70, died of a heart attack after hearing very loud explosions near her house on the Gaza-Egypt border line.

Also, medics reported that a Palestinian farmer from the Faraheen neighborhood on the southeastern Israel-Gaza border line, was wounded by an Israeli gun fire while doing labor. Israeli Army sources reported today that Israeli air strikes destroyed seven underground tunnels.  The Israeli Army says that Palestinians have used these to tunnels to smuggle weapons into the Hamas-run territory.

Meanwhile, Israeli media sources reported that a homemade shell fired from Gaza landed in an open area in southern Israel, with no casualties reported.

Gaza: Israeli missile causes death of elderly woman; soldiers target farmer near Khan Younis

Date: 18 / 02 / 2009  Time:  10:56
Gaza – Ma’an –

A woman is dead and another person injured after Israeli occupation forces warplanes launched several strikes on the border area between Egypt and Gaza Wednesday morning.

Warplanes launched missiles at underground smuggling tunnels, in addition to a security compound of the de facto government in Khan Younis, a city in the south of Gaza. A mosque was also destroyed in Khan Younis

The woman, 70-year-old Huda Abu Tahla, suffered a heart attack when missiles struck near her home, according to the executive director of the Abu Yousif An-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, Muhammad Subih.

Missile strikes destroyed seven smuggling tunnels along the Philadelphi Route, the zone along the Egypt-Gaza border. Israeli sources said the strikes were a response to recent projectile attacks launched by into southern Israel from Gaza.

Farmer shot

Separately, Palestinian medical sources said a Palestinian farmer was moderately injured by Israeli occupation forces fire in Al-Farahin area, east of Khan Younis near the border with Israel.

Volunteers from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) were witness to the incident, saying the 20-year-old agricultural worker was tending lands about 500 meters from the Israeli-Gaza border. The activists have been accompanying farmers as they enter areas close to the border area to ensure they are able to harvest vegetables as imports of fresh produce into the besieged area are limited.

According to the volunteers, Israeli soldiers shot the man in the right leg after he and a group of other farmers and activists had already been working in the area for two hours “in full view of Israeli forces,” a statement said.

The shots were fired as the farmers were loading parsley and spinach into a truck. The group retreated under fire.

The group noted they were wearing bright vests and carried a megaphone to identify themselves as civilian farmers.

Projectiles

Israel announced earlier on Wednesday that a home-made projectile fired from the northern Gaza Strip landed inside a kibbutz in the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council. There were no reports of injuries or damage.

An armed group calling itself “Palestinian Hizbullah” claimed to have launched a homemade projectile at the western Negev on Wednesday morning. In a statement the group called the attack part of their ongoing operation called “Gaza Flame.” They said operation is a response to the Israeli violence in the Gaza Strip and for the assassination of Hizbullah military leader Imad Mughniyya in February 2008.


***Updated 13:33 Bethlehem time