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Israel Kills Eight Palestinians In Gaza
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Panic
as the Israeli raid goes on (AFP)
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GAZA
CITY, December 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - In one of
the bloodiest 24 hours in the occupied Palestinian territories in
recent months, at least eight Palestinians were gunned down by Israeli
occupation forces in the Gaza Strip while two Israeli soldiers were
killed in a shootout with resistance fighters, sources on both sides
said Tuesday, December 23.
Six
Palestinians were killed during a major pre-dawn Israeli incursion
into the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza
by some 15 jeeps and armored vehicles, reported Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
Palestinian
medical and security sources said the martyrs had died after exchanges
of fire with the Israeli occupation troops.
At
least 20 other Palestinians were wounded in the ongoing incursion
during which several houses were razed to the ground.
An
Israeli army spokesman confirmed that an incursion was taking place in
Rafah to "destroy tunnels linking the Gaza Strip with Egypt for
arms smuggling."
The
latest deaths brought to 3,664 the number of people killed since the
start of the Intifada at the end of September 2000, including 2,741
Palestinians and 856 Israelis.
Rafah
has seen a number of large-scale Israeli army
raids in recent months.
Six
Palestinians were killed two weeks ago in an incursion to detain a
wanted leader from the resistance Jihad group.
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Evacuating
their home before Israeli bulldozers pull it down over their heads
(AFP)
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Some
14 Palestinians were killed and over 120 injured in Israeli raids in
Rafah over an 11-day period in October, which drew sharp criticism
from rights groups and the United Nations.
Forty
tunnels had been allegedly discovered and destroyed since the start of
the year, according to claims by the Israeli spokesman.
He
said the soldiers had "hit at least four terrorists shooting at
them" but he did not know if they had been killed.
Israel,
which occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem after its
1967 war against its Arab neighbors and has defied dozens of U.N.
Security Council resolutions to withdraw, insists on calling
Palestinian resistance "acts of terrorism".
Separately,
Israeli military sources said they had found the body of the second of
two Palestinians who were involved in an attack on Israeli troops late
Monday in the center of Gaza.
Two
Israeli officers were killed in the clash, which occurred near the
Kissufim crossing point, a road that links Israeli territory to Gush
Katif, a cluster of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories.
Israeli
military sources claimed the attack occurred after soldiers in an
observation post had spotted a Palestinian crawling towards the road
leading to Gush Katif.
When
two Israeli officers headed out to drive towards the spot in a jeep,
the Palestinian threw a grenade at them, killing them both, the
sources said.
Palestinian
witnesses said that Islamic Jihad's armed wing and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs
Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.
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