A Palestinian man was killed and 15 others wounded during an Israeli army incursion overnight into a refugee camp in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian hospital sources said Thursday, cited by AFP.
They said the victim, whose identity was not given, was shot in the head during clashes that erupted after the reported Israeli incursion into the camp in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. He died Thursday morning.
His death brings to 971 the number of people killed since the start of the Palestinian uprising, or Intifada, in September 2000, 760 of whom were Palestinians and 189 Israelis, according to AFP’s day-by-day count.
Two witnesses told the agency that seven homes belonging to Palestinians were seriously damaged by Israeli tanks during the incident overnight.
The Palestinian official news agency (WAFA) said that 20 people were hurt in the attack, and that at least three civilian buildings were destroyed by Israeli bulldozers.
The Israeli forces partially withdrew from Palestinian-controlled land, although some stayed in so-called zone A, under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority. They were outside the refugee camp, however.
Israeli military officials said the attack was provoked by Palestinian militants who fired mortar rounds at Israeli positions around a Jewish settlement close to Khan Younis, without causing any casualties, late Wednesday, said AFP.
"The goal was to push back the threat and during the operation the army used explosives to destroy buildings that had long been used as Palestinian firing positions and as dumps for mortar bombs," the spokesman said.
He said that during the incursion Palestinians had fired two more mortars at army positions and the Gush Katif settlement bloc.
Israel has settled thousands of its citizens in Gaza on land seized from Palestinian owners in 1967. The strip is one of the most crowded areas in the world.
According to the UK-based magazine The Economist, Israel has "flouted" the 1993 Oslo peace accords by settling tens of thousands of people on conquered Palestinian land, a policy considered illegal by nearly every country in the world – Albawaba.com
