|
Israel kills 9 year old in gaza Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6193616http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6193616
Israel Kills 4, Including 9-Year-Old, in Gaza
Thu Sep 9, 2004 09:43 AM ET
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
JABALYA, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Israeli forces thrust into Gaza's largest refugee camp on Thursday, killing four Palestinians including a 9-year-old boy, as the army tightened its grip on the northern part of the coastal strip.
Scores of gunmen fought a column of tanks and armored vehicles as Israeli troops took up positions in and around the teeming Jabalya camp, a militant stronghold, in an operation the army said was aimed at stopping rocket fire into Israel.
Helicopter gunships fired missiles into the camp of 100,000 inhabitants as Israeli forces sealed it off in Israel's biggest incursion in the northern Gaza Strip in months.
Munir el-Deqqes was shot in the chest while playing with friends outside his grandfather's house, witnesses said. "How can anyone blame children playing in the street?" said the boy's uncle. "Munir was a victim of blind Israeli retaliation."
At least 35 people, including militants and civilians, were wounded by Israeli fire, medics said.
A military source said soldiers had shot only at armed men. It was the latest chapter in Israel's military response after suicide bombers killed 16 people in southern Israel last week.
The raid marked a widening of Israel's incursion that began on Wednesday when forces swept in and seized control following a barrage of makeshift rocket strikes in southern Israel.
The latest spiral of violence could further complicate Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw troops and settlers from the occupied Gaza Strip by the end of 2005.
Palestinian militants are determined to claim any Israeli pullout as a victory, but Israel has vowed to smash them first.
PALESTINIAN CONDEMNATION
"We urge the ... civilized world to stop these crimes by Israeli occupation forces and call on the United States to shoulder its responsibilities toward the peace process," Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said in a statement.
Israel's army killed 14 Hamas fighters at a Gaza training camp on Tuesday in the deadliest strike ever against the militant Islamic group, which is sworn to Israel's destruction.
Hamas, responsible for a double suicide bombing in the Israeli city of Beersheba on August 31, vowed revenge for the Israeli attacks.
In the second day of Israel's incursion in northern Gaza, the army said its forces had penetrated to the first row of houses in eastern Jabalya.
Israeli commanders have usually been reluctant to send forces deep into Jabalya's cramped alleys, where they would be vulnerable to booby traps and bombs planted by militants.
"We won't stay there forever," a senior Israeli official said. "But we have to conduct forays just to keep them (the rocket crews) off balance."
Medics said troops shot dead four people in Jabalya, including at least one Hamas militant. It was not known if two other dead, both men in their 20s, were militants or civilians.
Israeli forces surrounded Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya on Wednesday -- towns that have been frequently raided -- and bulldozers tore up stretches of road to cut off the area. By Thursday, shops were getting low on supplies.
Despite the two-day-old raid, militants managed to fire several primitive Qassam rockets from fenced-in Gaza toward the Israeli town of Sderot. There were no reports of casualties.
In a game of cat-and-mouse, militants in some cases use timers so they can escape minutes before the rockets are launched, Palestinian sources said.
The army said soldiers in northern Gaza destroyed three welding machines on Thursday used to make the rockets.
|
|
