Mideast - AFP
Israeli raid in northern Gaza leaves 13 Palestinians dead
Date: Wed, Apr 21, 2004
BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip (AFP) - Thirteen Palestinians have been killed in more than 24 hours of fierce fighting after the Israeli army launched a major operation in the northern Gaza Strip (news - web sites), medical sources and witnesses said.
Nine Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli troops on Wednesday, including a 12-year-old boy, while another four were killed during the clashes in the Beit Lahiya area on Tuesday evening at the start of the operation.
At least two members of the radical Palestinian factions Islamic Jihad and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades who were involved in the armed clashes with the Israeli troops, witnesses and Palestinian security sources said.
But others were shot dead after throwing stones at the troops, witnesses said.
A total of 45 people were also wounded in the clashes, including five who were injured when an Israeli helicopter fired two rockets in their direction.
This latest round of violence raises the overall toll since the September 2000 start of the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, to 3,927, including 2,958 Palestinians and 899 Israelis.
An AFP correspondent saw Palestinian fighters open fire at an Israeli tank with rocket-propelled grenade from which a cloud of smoke was clearly visible.
"We have destroyed or damaged several Israeli tanks," said one fighter from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a radical offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s Fatah (news - web sites) movement.
As he ushered one of his sons away from the scene of the clashes, Abu Mohammed al-Dahur said tanks had surrounded his home in which his wife and 10 other children were still inside.
"I have only been able to get away with one of my sons. I pray to God to protect the others," he said.
Many of the houses in the town had been severely damaged by the shooting, while fields had been clearly razed by army bulldozers.
Tawfiq Abu Jarad, a 24-year-old Beit Lahiya resident, said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) "wants to totally destroy" the Gaza Strip before his planned withdrawal.
"Sharon is committing a massacre in Beit Lahiya. What have the children done who they are firing on?," he said.
The Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) denounced the incursion as "a serious escalation", pointing out that it had been carried out despite Sharon's promise to withdraw from the territory.
"The assassinations and serious escalations in the Israeli aggressions prove that Israel has no intention of withdrawing from Gaza as it is pretending, but is trying to sabotage all the efforts to relaunch the peace process," chief Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rudeina, told AFP.
An army spokesman said troops had been operating in the area since Tuesday in order to "foil the firing of Qassam rockets and mortar bombs at Israeli communities in and outside the Gaza Strip.
"Fifteen rockets had been fired since Sunday, but thanks to our operation, today and yesterday no more were fired" he said, confirming that both troops and a helicopter had targeted armed Palestinians in the area.
"Forces identified a cell of Palestinians planting explosive devices in the area and an Israeli helicopter fired at them. The forces also identified armed Palestinians and hit them."
The "operation is ongoing", he added.
The Brigades claimed responsibility for several rocket attacks on Tuesday that lightly wounded nine Israelis and came three days after the group's leader, Abdelaziz Rantissi, was killed in an Israeli air strike.
The Israeli commander for the Gaza Strip and southern Israel, General Dan Harel, said "this wave of rockets is linked to Rantissi's death and will calm down.
"We are taking the appropriate measures to ensure the security of the settlements," he added.
SOURCE
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