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To Kill Hamas Activist, Israel Massacres 12 Palestinians
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A Palestinian carries body of 2-year-old toddler Ayyad
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Additional
Reporting By Yasser Al Banna, Mustafa el-Sawwaf, IOL Palestine
Correspondents
GAZA
CITY, May 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – In order to kill
a "targeted" Hamas activist, the Israeli occupation forces
stormed Thursday, May 1, a densely populated Gaza City area, cordoned
off a four-storey building and massacres other 12 Palestinians,
including a two-year-old toddler and two teenagers.
Some
60 Israeli armored vehicles, including tanks and bulldozers backed by
helicopter gunships, stormed the Shajaiya district at the small hours
of the day.
Failing
to kill Hamas leader Yusef Abu Hin, 38, the Israeli occupation forces
eventually had to dynamited the building, razing it to the ground and
killing the resistance activist and his two brothers, Ayman, 30, and
Mahmud, 29, who were holed up inside the building with him,
Palestinian security and hospital sources.
The
die-hard Hamas activist and his brothers had held out for 15 hours
under the fire of Israeli tanks, infantry and helicopter gunships.
Seven
Israeli soldiers were wounded in the incursion assault, which dealt a
heavy blow to peace hopes that had arisen Wednesday, April 30, when
international diplomats finally unveiled a long-awaited "roadmap"
to ending the 31-month conflict.
Ten
other Palestinians were killed during the Israeli army incursion
including two-year-old Amir Ahmed Ayad who was struck by a bullet to
his head by Israeli occupation forces during the dawn incursion.
Fadel
Abu Hin, another brother of the slain Hamas activist, told Agence
France-Presse (AFP) during the clashes that Israeli occupation troops
surrounded the building housing some 50 people, and warned of an
imminent "massacre" as the soldiers were opening fire and
the holed up gunmen returning it.
There
were scenes of panic inside the building most of the day, according to
a resident on the third floor contacted by phone.
"The
army is shelling more and more. The soldiers are firing like crazy in
all directions. Several shells have already hit the building,"
said Nifuz, a young woman who was trapped inside.
"There
are many wounded inside, but the ambulances can't reach the building.
Some people have tried to leave, but it's too dangerous," she
said.
She
added that the building's inhabitants, including elderly people, women
and children, were screaming and crying.
"One
old man, Abu Mohammad, kept running around shouting: 'Where is the
roadmap, where is Abu Mazen?'," she said, referring to new
Palestinian prime minister Mahmud Abbas.
Hospital
sources said a 67-year-old man died of a heart attack during the
Israeli attack.
Two
Palestinian men were also shot dead by Israeli occupation forces
carrying out a night-time operation in the Palestinian town of Yatta,
south of Al-Khalil (Hebron) in the West Bank, Palestinian security
officials said.
One
of the men killed was named as Khalid Nakhramri, 27, a local laborer
who worked in Israel. The other man was not known.
An
Israeli army spokesman claimed troops scouting the town had spotted
two armed men and killed them in a gunfight.
In
other developments Thursday, the Israeli army imposed a curfew on the
southern West Bank town of Bethlehem, and abducted eight Palestinians,
witnesses said.
They
said Israeli soldiers had also surrounded the Church of the Nativity,
allegedly to prevent any “wanted” Palestinians from taking refuge
in the holy site.
Other
Clashes
Meanwhile,
Israeli forces backed with 25 tanks and Apache helicopter gunships
pushed near southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah and opened random fire
after forcing the residents to leave their houses.
Soldiers
called on family members inside to leave the house and planted
explosives around it, but they refused, witnesses said.
Palestinian gunmen and Israeli soldiers traded fire during the raid,
which was still underway.
The
Palestinian fighters said they managed to break down one Israeli tank
and one jeep vehicle during the fire exchange.
The
armed wing of Hamas, Ezzedin al-Qassam, said in a statement, a copy of
which was obtained by IslamOnline.net, that it fired five home-made
Qassam 2 rockets on two Jewish settlements three kilometers to the
east of Gaza City.
British
Human Shield Arrested
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"Where is the roadmap, where is Abu Mazen?," cried a panicked Palestinian elder trapped inside the house |
A
British peace activist from the International Solidarity Movement was
also arrested overnight in the southern Gaza Strip of Rafah,
Palestinian security sources and her organization said.
She
was acting as a human shield by spending the night in one of the
Palestinian houses threatened with demolition along the border with
Egypt when Israeli soldiers took her. There has been no news of her
since.
Romany
Smith's detention coincided with an army raid into Rafah, which an AFP
correspondent said damaged 20 houses on the Egyptian side of the
divided city.
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