At least 14 Palestinians were killed and more than 100 were injured when Israeli military vehicles backed by helicopters raided a Palestinian neighborhood in the Gaza Strip early on Monday, Palestinian security sources and witnesses said.
The Israeli forces, consisting of tanks, armored vehicles, bulldozers and infantry troops supported by Apache helicopters, fired at various targets and clashed with local fighters on their way to al-Amal neighborhood west of Khan Younis, sparking a fierce gun battle between the two sides.
Ambulances rushing to the scene took away many wounded Palestinians to a hospital where a 40-year-old man and a 52-year-old woman were among the dead, medical sources said. Twenty-five of the wounded were listed in critical condition, doctors conveyed. Most suffered shrapnel wounds in the head, chest and abdomen. The dead ranged in age from 14 to 52.
Palestinian witnesses said Israeli troops had fired a missile into the second floor of a building located inside the al-Amal neighborhood before the operation, wounding at least three people. Four Palestinians were killed when a missile fired by an Israeli helicopter exploded in a crowd of people, witnesses said.
The Palestinian governor of Khan Younis, Husni Zourab, said several explosions were heard in the industrial section of the city, indicating that the Israelis were blowing up buildings there.
The witnesses said the Israeli operation was targeting two main streets in Khan Younis as well as the edge of the refugee camp.
It came a few hours after Palestinians fired a mortar shell at a Jewish settlement in another part of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said.
Later, Israeli troops fired assault rifles and machine guns into Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, where hundreds of people had gathered to learn about the fate of relatives.
Eight more people were wounded by army fire at the hospital, including a 14-year-old boy hit in the neck and a paramedic wounded in the chest.
Also Monday morning, Israeli forces in military posts in the vicinity of Neve Dekalim settlement, west of Khan Yunis, shelled Palestinian residential areas in the town, killing one Palestinian civilian and wounding nine others.
According to Palestinian sources, 13 of the dead were:
1. Mohammed Hassan al-Astal, 15;
2. 'Abdullah Walid Salah, 16;
3. Ahmed 'Abdul Ra'ouf al-Astal, 16;
4. Fares 'Abdul Nasser Daoud al-Zaqzouq, 17;
5. Haitham Mousa Abu al-Naja, 27;
6. Ussama Mohammed 'Ali 'Aabdin, 23;
7. Eihab Helmi Dhib Khalaf, 22;
8. Ayman Mohammed Saqer, 35;
9. Mohammed Mustafa Sadiq, 20;
10. Mohammed Farhan Shaloula, 23;
11. Jamal Fathi Muhareb, 18;
12. 'Abdul Fattah 'Ali Suleiman al-Sallout, 40;
13. Rahima Hassan 'Ali Salama, 50;
Later in the day, Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian who tried to circumvent a roadblock near the West Bank city of Qalqilya, Palestinian witnesses and hospital officials said. Palestinian sources said a 42-year-old Palestinian man was also shot by Israeli soldiers between two roadblocks near the West Bank city of Nablus. The man died in a hospital.
Palestinian chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat denounced the Israeli raid in Gaza Strip as a massacre and called on the international community to protect the Palestinians. Erekat said he believed the raid was timed to disrupt the visit of Javier Solana, the foreign policy chief of the European Union, to the region.
"Every time we witness efforts to revive the peace process and put it back on track, like those being exerted now by Solana, the Israeli government moves to conduct such war crimes and murder innocent civilians because the end game of the Israeli government is to resume full occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank," Erekat aired.
Meanwhile, Hamas called on all Palestinian groups to strike Israel. "This massacre is one of a series by the Zionist occupation aimed at destroying all Palestinians, including children, women and elderly people," charged Abdel Aziz Rantissi, a senior Hamas leader.
"After this massacre, the Palestinian people lost security in Khan Yunis. Is it fair that there should be security in Tel Aviv?", he told AFP.
"We are asking all Palestinian military groups -- the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the Al-Quds Brigades, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine -- to escalate their operations and strike everywhere in Israel," he said.
Reactions
The United States gave a muted response to the Gaza raid. "Israel has a right to defend itself. Israel should, however, consider carefully the consequences of its actions -- that includes the need to take every measure to prevent the loss of innocent life in fighting terror," said White House National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack.
British Foreign Minister Jack Straw said after talks with his French counterpart Dominique de Villepin in Paris that news of the Gaza attack "greatly disturbed" him. "We all understand Israel's need for security and we respect that. At the same time there is no justification for over-reaction which causes unnecessary loss of life," Straw told reporters.
The Russian Foreign Ministry criticized thd Israeli raid in the Gaza Strip. In a statement, it said the scale of the operation, "in particular the use of tanks and aviation in a highly-populated region, was clearly disproportionate."
(Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
