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Israeli air strikes hit Gaza

Israel Materials 7 February 2009 03:02 (UTC +04:00)

Israel has launched several air raids against targets in southern Gaza near the border with Egypt, causing damages but no injuries, Aljazeera reported referring to the Palestinian security sources.

The strikes targeted "open areas" near the town of Rafah and tunnels along the border with Egypt, residents said.

An Israeli military spokesman confirmed that the "Israeli air force intervened in the Gaza Strip," late on Friday but he did not provide further details.

The raids came hours after Palestinian fighters fired two rockets at southern Israel without causing damage or victims, according to a military spokesman.

The strikes also came after reports that indirect talks between Israel and Hamas over a prisoner swap to free Gilad Shalit, a captured Israeli soldier, failed.

Shalit was captured by Gaza groups in a 2006 cross-border raid.

Osama al-Muzaini, a Hamas official who is involved in the negotiations, said on Friday that the talks had shown little progress and that any claims by Israel that progress had been made were "election-motivated".

"There has been no progress in the [Shalit] file for several months and that is because [ Israel] remained unwilling to pay the price," he told Reuters news agency.

Muzini was responding to a report published on the website of Israel's Haaretz newspaper quoting unnamed Israeli officials as saying significant progress had been made in truce talks and Shalif negotiations.

Muzaini did not mention where the talks had been held or who led the mediation.

Hamas has demanded the release of 1,400 prisoners in exchange for Shalit.

Muzaini said Israel had only agreed to 71 names from the list of 450 long-serving prisoners Hamas had proposed more than a year ago.

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