Israeli Troops Kill Six Palestinians in Gaza Raid

01/05/2003| IslamWeb

Israeli tanks backed by helicopters thrust into a Palestinian militant stronghold near Gaza City early on Thursday, killing six Palestinians, including a two-year-old toddler, in a gunfight, witnesses said. The Israeli raid followed Wednesday's release of an internationally-backed "road map" to Middle East peace, which calls for an end to 31-months of Israeli-Palestinian violence and the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005. Residents of the Shijaia neighborhood outside Gaza City, the main hub of the coastal Gaza Strip, said Israeli troops raided the area after midnight and laid siege to the house of the family of a militant from the Islamic group Hamas. Soldiers called on family members inside to leave the house, but they refused, witnesses said. Palestinian gunmen and Israeli troops traded fire during the raid, which was still underway. Six Palestinians were killed, including the toddler, who was struck by a bullet to his head, and a 13-year-old boy, witnesses and hospital officials said. They said 12 others were wounded. An Israeli military source confirmed that an operation was underway in Shijaia against the "terrorist" infrastructure. The source said at least six soldiers were wounded in the battle. "This is the practical translation and implementation of the road map," Hamas official Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi said of the raid. "We believe this road map aims to liquidate the Palestinian cause. We will respond by continuing the resistance (against) occupation and escalating it," he told Reuters. Hours before the road map was presented to Israeli and Palestinian leaders, a resistance bombing hit the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv in which the bomber killed three people. Hamas and an armed offshoot of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction said they jointly carried out the attack. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Palestinians carry the body of 2-year-old baby boy Amir Ayyad after he was killed during an attack by Israeli troops on the Shijaia neighborhood outside of Gaza City May 1, 2003. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters)