On Monday morning the Palestinian official news agency, WAFA, issued a communiqué stating that the six Palestinians killed by Israeli troops killed in two separate incidents in the Gaza Strip yesterday were Palestinian citizens deliberately killed by Israel in ambushes that inflamed the area after Palestinian attacks had been ceased.
In the first incident, an Israeli armored force shot three Palestinians who it claimed fired at it first. In the incident, which took place early Sunday evening near the Beit Lahia, an Israeli armored force spotted three Palestinians approaching a Jewish settlement and charged them According to the official Israeli announcement, the soldiers opened fire after being shot on by the Palestinians. However, when Israeli forces searched their bodies they only found knives, according to Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot. Israeli daily Haaretz added that no guns were found in the surrounding area either.
In the second incident, Israeli forces shot and killed three Palestinians who were supposedly trying to infiltrate into Israeli territory by crossing the Israeli security fence near the village of Beit Hanun. The Jerusalem Post reported that the soldiers ordered the three to halt and fired into the air in an attempt to arrest them. After one of the Palestinians opened fire and tried to set off a bomb, the soldiers returned fire, killing all three. Israeli security sources said that the infiltrators were all wearing explosive belts and were heavily armed, security sources said. They said the squad was likely trying to carry out a suicide attack inside Israel. The three were identified as members of the Fatah movement, one of whom was on Israel’s “wanted list”.
The Palestinian communiqué pointed out with regard to this incident that the Israeli forces’ claim that the three Palestinians did not obey Israeli military orders to stop was immaterial, because the incident occurred in an area that was not a military zone, and there were no military camps located nearby other than the ambushing force that killed the three.
The Palestinian communiqué stated “This provocative criminal escalation that coincides with the tight closure aim only to blast the calmness prior to the return of Gen. Zinni,” and called on the international community to stop the Israeli atrocities and aggression against the defenseless Palestinians. Over the past months, Israel has received intense criticism at home and abroad for its policy of assassination, which has targeted dozens of Palestinians in the ongoing conflict. (www.albawba.com)
