Israeli airstrike kills 2, injures 13
In the second botched Israeli airstrike in Gaza in two days, two people were killed and 13 were wounded when a missile hit a house Wednesday, just hours after grieving Palestinians buried three children killed in a previous attack.
Militants vowed revenge, and Israelis debated the effectiveness of airstrikes that target militants but are taking a mounting toll on innocent Palestinians.
In Wednesday’s attack, Israeli aircraft targeted militants in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis but hit a house instead, killing a man and a woman and wounding at least 13 people.
Washington
Perry urges strike to take out missile
Former Defense Secretary William Perry has called on President Bush to launch a pre-emptive strike against the long-range ballistic missile that U.S. intelligence analysts say North Korea is preparing to launch.
In an opinion article in today’s Washington Post, Perry and former Assistant Defense Secretary Ashton Carter argue that if North Korea continues launch preparations, Bush should immediately declare that the United States will destroy the missile before it can be fired.
As President Clinton’s defense secretary, Perry oversaw preparation for airstrikes on North Korean nuclear facilities in 1994, an attack that was never carried out. Perry, who is widely respected in national-security circles, has been a critic of the Bush administration’s approach to North Korea.
“We believe diplomacy might have precluded the current situation,” Perry and Carter said. “But diplomacy has failed, and we cannot sit by and let this deadly threat mature.”
Geneva
Israel admitted to Red Cross
The Red Cross admitted Israel to the worldwide humanitarian organization early today, ending decades of exclusion linked to the Jewish state’s refusal to accept the traditional cross symbol.
The approval followed a two-day International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.
With a round of applause the Red Cross federation admitted Israel’s Magen David Adom society simultaneously with the Palestine Red Crescent. An optional new emblem was adopted so that Israel could retain its red Star of David instead of having to adopt the red cross or crescent used by the 184 other societies in the global movement.