Mideast - AFP
Six Israeli soldiers wounded in hit on army post, two Palestinians shot dead
Date: Sun, Jun 27, 2004
GAZA CITY (AFP) - At least six Israeli soldiers were wounded when Palestinian militants set off a massive explosion in a tunnel they had dug underneath an army post in the southern Gaza Strip (news - web sites).
The hardline Islamist group Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, describing it as revenge for the assassination of their founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and former leader Abdelaziz Rantissi by Israeli forces earlier this year.
Local medical and security sources reported that two Palestinians, including a 13-year-old boy, were shot dead in the town of Khan Yunis soon after the blast as Israeli troops stationed at a nearby observation opened fire.
Five of the soldiers were evacuated to hospital, military sources said, while a sixth was trapped in the rubble left by the blast by a junction near the major Gush Khatif settlement bloc and the Palestinian town of Khan Yunis.
Israeli military helicopters and F-16 fighter planes could be seen flying overhead after the explosion.
A military source told AFP that armed militants had opened fire at troops from the direction of Khan Yunis immediately after the attack.
All the Israeli casualties were wounded by the impact of the initial blast, she added.
Emergency services had said in the immediate aftermath that dozens were feared injured, but military sources said that only five had so far been admitted to hospital.
General Shmuel Zacai, commander of an Israeli division in Gaza, confirmed that the blast had come from a tunnel built by Palestinian militants and then filled with explosives.
"It has taken quite a number of days to build this tunnel. A certain amount of explosives were then planted -- I estimate several dozens of kilograms -- before they activated them," he told reporters.
Hamas said in a statement to AFP's offices in Gaza City that it had placed explosives underneath the site of the attack.
"This operation came as part of our revenge for the crime of the assassinations of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Dr Rantissi, and the assassinations and massacres of our people," a spokesman for the group's armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said.
The organisation, whose stronghold and leadership in the Palestinian territories is based in Gaza, emphasised that it claimed sole responsibility for the attack.
Earlier, an anonymous caller from another radical faction, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, told AFP's offices in the West Bank town of Jenin that it had carried out the operation alongside Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) is planning to withdraw all troops and the 7,500 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip by the end of the year under the terms of his fiercely contested disengagement plan.
Some members of his own government have claimed that the decision to leave the territory as a unilateral measure will only be interpreted as a sign of weakness by groups such as Hamas.
Earlier, tens of thousands of furious Palestinians called for swift revenge attacks at a mass funeral for seven militants, including three senior commanders, shot dead by Israeli troops in the West Bank town of Nablus.
Around 30,000 people packed the streets of Nablus chanting demands for revenge in the heart of Israel after the Saturday killings -- strongly condemned by Palestinian premier Ahmed Qorei.
Fadi al-Bahti, a local leader of Islamic Jihad, and Jaffer al-Masri, a commander of the armed wing of Hamas, were also buried.
"Our revenge will be tonight," the crowds chanted in unison.
Nevertheless, the Gaza attack was not thought to be revenge for the Nablus killings as the tunnel would have taken some time to build.
SOURCE
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