World - Reuters
Raiding Israeli Forces Kill Gaza Boy, Witnesses Say
Date: Thu, Jul 01, 2004
By Bassam Massoud
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Israeli forces shot dead a 9-year-old Palestinian boy playing soccer in a Gaza refugee camp on Thursday as tanks rolled in to search for tunnels used by militants, witnesses said.
"We were playing soccer when Israeli tanks ... started firing inside the camp and toward us," said Bashir Abu Jlidan, 18, a resident of Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip (news - web sites).
He said Omar Zara'an, 9, fell to the ground bleeding. Doctors at Rafah hospital pronounced the boy dead after trying to revive him.
The Israeli army had no immediate comment on his death. It said Israeli forces were on a mission in Rafah, which borders Egypt, to destroy tunnels militants use to smuggle in weapons or place explosives underneath army positions.
In northern Gaza, witnesses said Israeli helicopters fired two missiles into the Beit Hanoun area raided by armored forces on Tuesday a day after militants active there launched rockets into a nearby Israeli town, killing two people.
Witnesses said the missiles injured 11 people, one critically, when they crashed close to where militants were planting bombs. The army said it was checking the reports.
Israeli military bulldozers were razing olive groves and orchards in Beit Hanoun to deprive rocket squads of cover. An Israeli military source said on Wednesday troops could remain there for months to stop militants launching rockets.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) plans to pull settlers and soldiers out of Gaza by the end of 2005 and vows "extensive action" before and after that to thwart further rocket strikes.
Israel's army besieged Rafah for six days in May, killing 42 Palestinians and leaving hundreds homeless after militants killed 13 soldiers in a string of ambushes.
HIGH COURT HALTS MORE BARRIER CONSTRUCTION
In Jerusalem, the High Court temporarily barred construction of Israel's West Bank barrier south of the city a day after ordering the state to re-route a 18-mile section to the northwest to reduce hardship for local Palestinians.
That decision set a precedent for pending hearings on some 20 other Palestinian petitions against sectors of the zigzagging barrier which they say cut them off from farms, markets, public services and West Bank cities.
Thursday's High Court injunction followed a petition by Palestinian villagers trapped by a loop in the disputed barrier around a nearby Jewish settlement on occupied territory.
Israel says the barrier, due to extend over 600 km, is meant to keep out suicide bombers. Palestinians call it a ruse to annex land they want for a state since it often dips well inside the West Bank to take in settlements.
Israeli forces mounted a rare raid into the West Bank town of Jericho on Thursday. The army said it detained 30 wanted Palestinians and found weaponry including rifles and grenades.
Witnesses in ancient Jericho, which has been largely untouched by nearly four years of Israeli-Palestinian violence, said troops pulled out after blowing up two flats and a house.
"This is a dangerous escalation by Israel," said Palestinian Negotiations Minister Saeb Erekat, a Jericho resident.
Residents of Nablus, also in the West Bank, said troops moved again into its casbah, or old town, closing its entrances and taking over a number of houses in a search for militants.
SOURCE
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