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Israel Kills 12 in Gaza Strip After Deadly Ambush
Date: Thu, May 13, 2004
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) - Israel killed 12 Palestinians in southern Gaza Thursday after back-to-back ambushes claimed the lives of 11 of its soldiers in the worst blow to the Middle East's mightiest army in two years.
The new spiral of violence intensified debate between proponents and opponents of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites)'s plan to evacuate settlers from Gaza, now stalled by rightist hard-liners in his own Likud party.
Witnesses said 11 Palestinians, four of them militants, were killed in helicopter missile strikes in Rafah refugee camp, near the area where militants blew up an explosives-packed troop carrier Wednesday. Five soldiers in the vehicle were killed.
"A helicopter fired missiles at a group of armed militants in two separate incidents at the same spot," an Israeli military source said.
Israeli troops, combing the area for the soldiers' remains, later shot dead a 19-year-old Palestinian during a push into Rafah, where 10 homes were demolished witnesses and medics said.
Another helicopter missile strike in late afternoon wounded at least three people on the edge of the camp, witnesses said.
Tuesday, six Israeli troops died when their armored vehicle struck a land mine during a raid in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighborhood. Militants grabbed the soldiers' body parts, which were scattered over a wide area.
Israeli forces left Zeitoun early Thursday in an Egyptian-mediated deal under which militants returned the men's remains.
Palestinian medics said 16 people, including militants and bystanders, were killed and 185 wounded in the two-day siege of the neighborhood, a stronghold of Islamist militant factions.
"They (the Israelis) have moved their crimes from Zeitoun in Gaza City to Rafah," Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) told reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah. "I call on the whole world to condemn these Israeli criminal acts."
In Brussels, the European Commission (news - web sites) decided to send $33 million in humanitarian aid to impoverished Palestinians in light of the upsurge in violence. The money would provide food aid, water sanitation and improved ambulance services.
ECHOES OF SOUTH LEBANON
The Palestinian ambushes in Zeitoun and Rafah, recalling tactics used by Hizbollah fighters against Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon, dealt the Israeli army its heaviest blow since April 2002, when 13 soldiers were killed in the West Bank. But Israel's army chief, Gen. Moshe Yaalon, rejected any comparison with Lebanon, where frequent attacks by Hizbollah created a public groundswell in Israel for a troop withdrawal carried out in 2000 after 22 years of occupation.
"We will act as long as there is terror in the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) ... and weapons that can threaten (Israeli) communities in the area," he told reporters.
Polls show most Israelis see Gaza as a liability that should be abandoned. Sharon vows to pursue his plan despite its defeat in a May 2 Likud vote that reflected fears Palestinian militants would seize on a unilateral pullout as a victory.
"There is a war against terror, and in that war there are bad days," Israeli Vice Premier Ehud Olmert said.
Olmert told Israel Radio that Sharon was working on a plan "to disengage from Gaza" that would also address Likud concerns.
In Zeitoun, thousands of Palestinians surveyed a scene of destruction -- dozens of houses and buildings blown up by Israeli forces and roads chopped up by heavy armor.
"(Soldiers) completed blowing up houses and workshops where we found mortars, lathes and materials to make Qassam rockets and explosives," Israeli army chief Gen. Moshe Yaalon said.
SOURCE
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