At Least Nine Palestinians Killed & Eighty Others Wounded in Gaza Raid

07/10/2002| IslamWeb

HIGHLIGHTS: Raid a Blow to EU Foreign Policy Chief Solana on a Visit to the Territories||Missile Attack in Katiba Neighbourhood of Khan Younis Kills Seven Palestinians Including a Woman While Israeli Gun & Tank Fire Kill Two Others at Al-Amal Neighbourhood of the Same Gazan City||Eyewitness: Firing Was Random from Both Ground and Air Occupation Forces||Solana to Meet Arafat Later Monday||William Burns of the U.S. Due to Follow Solana to the Region|| STORY: At least nine Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded when Israeli tanks backed by helicopters raided two Palestinian neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip early on Monday, witnesses and medics said.

It was one of the highest single Palestinian casualty tolls in recent weeks and struck a blow to a new drive by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana to coax the sides away from two years of bloodshed.

Seven Palestinians were killed at the close of the raid, which began after midnight and ended shortly before dawn. An Israeli helicopter fired a single missile that struck a crowd gathered in the Katiba neighborhood west of Khan Younis.

The Palestinians had ventured out of their shelters and gathered near a neighborhood mosque when it appeared the Israeli occupation troops were pulling out, witnesses said.

Two other Palestinians, including a 50-year-old woman, were killed by Israeli gunfire when more than two dozen Israeli tanks and armored vehicles moved into Katiba and the adjacent al-Amal neighborhood. A gunfight ensued between occupation troops and local Resistance men.

An Israeli occupation army statement said Israeli occupation forces had entered Khan Younis to deal with what it calls the "terrorist infrastructure" of the Resistance Islamic movement Hamas.

The statement said occupation soldiers detonated mortar bombs and pipe bombs during the operation and arrested a Palestinian carrying a homemade bomb. No occupation soldiers were injured in the operation, it added.

The occupation army claimed earlier that its soldiers entered Khan Younis after Palestinian Resistance men fired a rocket at a nearby Jewish settlement, causing no casualties.

Dr. Mohammed Abu Dallal from the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis confirmed that at least nine Palestinians had been killed in the raid and said up to 80 had been wounded.

Dozens of Palestinians gathered at the hospital awaiting word of the casualties.

"It was a difficult and terrifying night. Children were crying and women were screaming. The gunfire was random from the ground and the sky," said Mohammed Abu Moa'amar, 22, who crowded into a room of his house in al-Amal with other family members seeking shelter from the offensive.

"We stood together as if we were frozen," he said.

ISRAELI RAIDS IN GAZA INTENSIFYING

Israeli raids in Gaza have increased in frequency and scope since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed last month to pursue Palestinian Resistance men in the strip suspected of attacks on Israelis in a two-year-old uprising against occupation.

But the deadliest raids have brought international condemnation of Israeli tactics against the uprising. A missile strike on the military leader of the Islamic group Hamas also killed 14 civilians in Gaza in late July.

Solana was to meet Palestinian President Yasser Arafat later on Monday to advance a peace plan outlined by the "quartet" of EU, U.N., U.S. and Russian mediators calling for a reform of the Palestinian Authority and an Israeli withdrawal from West Bank cities.

On Sunday, Solana met Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, but the talks were already marred by the killing of two Palestinians in the West Bank.

In one incident, Palestinian witnesses said Jewish settlers shot dead a Palestinian worker as he harvested olives with other people in a grove south of Nablus.

U.S. Middle East envoy William Burns is due to follow Solana to the region. Washington has sought to calm Middle East violence as it seeks support for a potential strike on Iraq.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinians carry a young person wounded by shrapnel to the treatment room at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis southern Gaza Strip (news - web sites), Monday Oct. 7, 2002. Ten Palestinians were killed and 115 wounded early Monday during an Israeli incursion into the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, officials and doctors said, most when an Israeli helicopter fired a missile that exploded in a crowd. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamr