The Palestinian Authority declared Thursday a national day of mourning after 20 Palestinian security men and civilians were killed by Israeli troops during an incursion into the self-rule village of Beit Reema, which ended overnight.
Israeli forces withdrew from the Ramallah village less than 24 hours after they launched an incursion that triggered what Palestinian officials called a "massacre."
An Israeli army spokesman said the assault on Beit Reema, part of a week of incursions into Palestinian towns that triggered strong US and international criticism, "was launched to thwart terrorist attacks," according to AFP.
Meanwhile, a member of the Force 17 elite Palestinian presidential guards was shot by the occupation troops in Bethlehem Thursday morning.
Sources named him as Wahid Abayat, 20.
And the Israeli army shelled, in the meantime, houses of citizens in Tulkarem, as its re-occupation of the city and five others in the West Bank continued, despite international calls for withdrawal.
The army spokesman did not elaborate or restate any death toll, but the Palestinian Authority has condemned the pre-dawn assault on Beit Reema Wednesday, calling it "a massacre by decision of Ariel Sharon," Israel's hawkish prime minister.
Casualty figures have varied.
Sharon spokesman Raanan Gissin said six Palestinians were killed in Beit Reema, a village of 4,000 residents near Ramallah and one of six occupied in a bloody, week-long operation to retaliate for the assassination of an Israeli cabinet minister.
The Israeli military, however, has since downsized the toll to five, while the Palestinian Authority said nine Palestinians were killed.
But Abu Dhabi satellite channel said more than 20 Palestinians were killed in the attack, most of them policemen and national security personnel.
Al Jazeera satellite channel’s correspondent said they were killed in a pre-dawn assault by an elite Israeli unit, which opened fire on them while they were asleep.
A number of the victims bled to death after the occupation soldiers refused to allow the Red Cross into the village, according to one of the RC staff, speaking to Al Jazeera.
“They told us it’s a closed military area and did not allow us in. It’s the first time [like this]” one female staff member told the station, standing near an ambulance waiting to rescue the wounded.
The official Palestinian news agency (WAFA) correspondent in Bethlehem quoted sources as saying that the bodies of the dead and the wounded were scattered in the olive orchards Wednesday.
And the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which claimed responsibility for the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, said 16 people, all civilians, had been killed in the Beit Reema attack.
Israeli troops also razed three building in Beit Reema used by Palestinians who have been accused of involvement in the October 17 assassination of Zeevi, public radio said citing Israeli military officials.
The Israeli incursions triggered sharp international criticism and calls for restraint from Washington.
Sharon told parliament Wednesday that the Israeli army had made "very important arrests" in Beit Reema, and reiterated that he had "no intention" of keeping his forces in the six Palestinian towns they had partially re-occupied since Zeevi was killed.
They would pull out after completing their mission to arrest the murder suspects, he said.
But Mohammad Dahlan, the head of the Palestinian Preventive Security in Gaza, denied as “lies” Sharon’s allegations that the assassins of Zeevi were in Beit Reema.
He told reporters that Israel had actually arrested two of the PFLP fighters, but had kept up its denials in order to justify its aggression.
Israel's mini-cabinet was scheduled to meet Thursday about withdrawing the troops, said AFP.
Political sources said Sharon and his top ministers were moving towards pulling out of the six self-rule towns partly due to the international pressure and partly because the troops had achieved their alleged goals - killing or arresting several of the "terrorists" they were sent in to get – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
