Six Palestinian Fateh activists were reportedly killed by Israeli tank fire in Al Faraa refugee camp north of Nablus, reported Al Jazeera satellite channel, but the Israeli army denies it launched the attack.
Haaretz said the six were killed in a huge explosion early Monday in a shack near the camp, citing witnesses and security officials.
According to AFP, five were killed in the explosion, all aged between 24 and 27.
The blast tore apart the tin shack. Palestinian police at a checkpoint about 200 meters (yards) away said they heard a loud blast. Palestinian security officials, requesting anonymity, said the cause of the explosion was unclear, according to the paper.
An eyewitness told Haaretz there were no Israeli helicopters in the area, and the blast blew the roof off the shack, indicating that the explosion came from inside the structure.
However, Al Jazeera report indicated that a tank attack on the activists was a possibility, quoting Palestinian sources.
All six dead Palestinians were members of the Fateh movement’s military wing, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Israeli security officials were quoted by the daily as saying all were on Israel's wanted list for planning attacks inside Israel.
In recent weeks Israel has carried out targeted killings of Palestinian militants suspected of planning or carrying out attacks in Israel.
The six dead Fateh activists were identified as Mahar Jawabri, Abdel Rahman Mubarak and Hikmet Abu Habal, members of Palestinian military intelligence from the Al Fara camp; Munir Abu Jaroor from the Al Fara camp and Amin Malik from Tubas village, and Mohammed Tayeh, the owner of the shack.
Naseem Ishtaya from the village of Salim near Nablus was also wounded in the blast, the officials told the paper.
Meanwhile, AFP reported that a seven-year-old Israeli girl was slightly injured early Monday when Palestinians fired two mortar shells at the Kfar Darom settlement in the southern Gaza Srip.
Two houses were damaged in the attack, according to the report. Four other shells exploded in the Netzer Hazani settlement in the Gaza Strip, causing no injuries.
Elsewhere, Palestinian resistance fighters reportedly launched 28 grenades at an Israeli military position near Rafah, not far from the Egyptian border, also without causing casualties, the report said.
Since the September 2000 eruption of the latest Palestinian uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation, the media has reported that Palestinians have killed at least 125 Israelis with weapons ranging from stones and knives to machineguns and car bombs. Israeli military sources have reported well over 600 injuries to Israelis of Jewish descent.
In the same time period, according to international media reports, Israeli soldiers and armed Jewish settlers have killed 13 Arab Israelis and at least 521 Palestinians with weapons ranging from machineguns and tanks to US-made Apache helicopter gunships and F-16s.
According to an Amnesty International report, nearly 100 of the Palestinians killed were children. In addition, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has reported over 14,000 Palestinians wounded.
Jewish author Noam Chomsky, who according to a New York Times Book Review article is “arguably the most important intellectual alive,” has been quoted as saying: “State terrorism is an extreme form of terrorism, generally much worse than individual terrorism because it has the resources of a state behind it.” – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
