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Israeli Incursion Kills Eight Palestinians, Wounds 35
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Medics
wheel a Palestinian man wounded during the barbaric Israeli
incursion
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GAZA
CITY, March 3 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Eight
Palestinians including a woman and a child were killed and some 35
wounded early Monday, March 3, during a barbaric Israeli incursion
into the Gaza Strip, said Palestinian sources said.
Backed
by some 40 tanks and armoured personnel carriers, Israeli infantry
units moved into the El Bureij refugee camp south of Gaza City,
meeting with stiff resistance, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The
occupation soldiers blew up three houses after telling the residents
to leave but the dead woman remained inside and was buried under the
rubble, medical sources said.
One
of the three houses blown up was the home of Ayaman Tahha, 67, a local
leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, who was abducted
with his two sons by the Israeli forces.
The
two other houses destroyed were the family homes of two members of
another Palestinian resistance movement, Islamic Jihad, sought by
Israel. It was in one of them that the woman died.
Tareq
Akel, 13, was among those shot dead during a praise-worthy resistance
from Palestinian fighters and the Israeli forces. The five others
killed were aged between 17 and 24.
Thirty-five
other Palestinians were wounded, with nine in critical condition, the
security source said.
The
Israeli occupation army, in addition, launched a major operation in
the old town of Nablus in the north of the West Bank, AFP quoted a
Palestinian security source as saying.
Some
20 tanks and numerous military Jeeps took up positions near the
entrance to the old town and the Israeli troops imposed a curfew in
the sector, firing salvos of warning shots.
Army
units started search operations and took control of several high-rise
buildings.
In
Gaza, a first armoured column entered El Bureij from the north via the
Netzarim Jewish settlement. A second, also made up of around 20
armoured vehicles, went in from the south via the Kfar Darom
settlement after ploughing for two kilometres (more than a mile)
through the Palestinian autonomous zone.
The
deaths brought the toll since the start of the Palestinian Intifada in
September 2000 to 3,011, including 2,260 Palestinians and 695
Israelis.
Since
the beginning of 2003, the occupation army has bulldozed flat more
than 382 houses and 280 shops, wrecking havoc on dozens others and
displacing scores of Palestinian people, drawing strong criticisms
from human rights watchdogs, which accuse Israel of carrying out
collective punishments, according to statistics released by the
Palestinian Mizan and Al-Haq human rights organisations.
On
Sunday, March 2, Israeli tanks thrust into the refugee camp of Khan
Yunis Sunday after a large bomb flipped an Israeli personnel carrier
against a wall, injuring two soldiers.
The
Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, claimed
responsibility for the blast.
Later
Sunday, four Palestinian youths were wounded, one of them, a
nine-year-old boy, died of his wounds a few hours later.
Israeli
soldiers opened fire on them when they visited the wreckage of their
houses, Palestinian medical sources said.
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