Israeli troops raided a town in northern Gaza Strip early Thursday in one of the largest operations in recent months.
Five Palestinians were killed, including Eid Al-Za’aneen, a 13-year-old boy who doctors said was left bleeding for three hours because troops prevented paramedics from reaching the scene. The boy, who had a head wound, was eventually carried to an ambulance and died on the way to the hospital, doctors said, according to AP.
The incursion targeted the town of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza. It came on "Naqba (catastrophe) Day," when Palestinians mark the anniversary of their displacement during the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.
The Gaza incursion began before dawn Thursday. Military officials said the goal was to stop the firing of homemade rockets into Israel.
The operation came as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, prepared to meet Saturday night, the highest-level meeting in three years.
Witnesses said some 70 armored vehicles were involved in the incursion. Israeli forces blew up three houses and leveled two more with bulldozers. All five homes belonged to Hamas members. The group has claimed responsibility for most of the rocket attacks.
Residents said Israeli snipers were posted on the roofs of seven buildings in Beit Hanoun, and soldiers conducted house-to-house searches. They said soldiers with loudspeakers instructed Palestinians to stay in their houses.
Israeli tanks also moved to surround the nearby town of Beit Lahiya and the Jabaliya refugee camp between Beit Lahiya and Gaza City. Israel cut off electricity to the area, they said.
Hours later, about 15,000 Palestinians filled the streets of Gaza City and hundreds turned out in the West Bank city of Ramallah to mark the "Naqba."
In Gaza City, demonstrators fired rifles into the air, waved Palestinian flags, and wore T-shirts with the face of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, whose picture also appeared on numerous street corners.
At noon, a three-minute siren rang out in parts of the West Bank and Gaza. Motorists stopped their cars. Thousands of marchers held up their fingers in a V-for-victory sign and Palestinian legislators placed their hands over their hearts.
In his speech to mark the Naqba, Arafat lashed out at what he termed a "conspiracy" against Palestinian peace efforts. "We have clearly announced our strategic choice of peace to obtain an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, but there is a conspiracy against us," he said.
"No peace is possible without a complete Israel withdrawal from the Palestinian and Arab lands occupied on June 4, 1967 and the removal of all settlements," Arafat noted. (Albawaba.com)
