'Israeli air raids' hit Gaza

ISRAEL'S air force fired about 30 missiles at targets in the Gaza Strip today killing at least 140 people and wounding 200 medical officials say.

The strikes targeted several police compounds of the the radical Islamic group Hamas, the elected leaders of Palestine.

Television footage showed chaos on the streets of Gaza with dead bodies scattered across roads and wounded and dead of all ages being carried away by rescuers.

There was also huge damage to many of the buildings squeezed into the densely populated Gaza Strip.

Hamas police spokesman Islam Shahwan told Hamas radio that a police compound in Gaza City had been hosting a graduation ceremony for new personnel when it was attacked.

Thick black smoke billowed over the city after the attacks on the small slither of land situated between Israel and Egypt.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the attack, which followed a decision by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s security cabinet to widen reprisals for cross-border Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel.

A six-month truce expired last week in Gaza and about a dozen rockets and mortar bombs were fired from Gaza at Israel yesterday.

One accidentally struck a northern Gaza house killing two Palestinian sisters, aged five and 13, and wounding a third, Palestinian medics say.