Three Palestinians killed in Gaza army raid
Three Palestinians were killed today in the second day of the Israeli army’s raid in the Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, witnesses and hospital officials said.
In all, 11 Palestinians, including at least seven militants, have been killed and 43 others have been wounded, seven seriously, since Israeli tanks and bulldozers entered the camp yesterday.
A Palestinian ambulance driver and five children under the age of 16 were among the wounded. One Israeli soldier also was wounded.
The raid, aimed at stopping Palestinian mortar and rocket fire on Israeli settlements and military outposts in Gaza, was the largest Israeli military operation since Yasser Arafat’s death on November 11.
Palestinian mortar barrages over the past week killed a Thai worker in a Jewish settlement and injured 17 other people, including 11 soldiers.
Today, Palestinian militants launched three home-made rockets from northern Gaza, the army said. Two of the rockets landed in Israel but caused no injuries or damage.
In Khan Younis, two Palestinian militants were killed by tank fire in separate incidents today, Palestinian hospital officials said. The body of a third Palestinian shot in the head was recovered this morning, medical officials said. It was unclear whether he was a militant.
Meanwhile, residents of the Rafah refugee camp along Gaza’s border with Egypt said five Palestinians who had been trapped in an underground weapons smuggling tunnel were rescued alive.
The tunnel collapsed early yesterday, trapping the five Palestinians. They were rescued after spending 23 hours underground, witnesses said.
Also today, the Islamic militant group Hamas marked its 17th anniversary with a march through the streets of the West Bank city of Nablus by thousands of supporters – some carrying flags and pictures of Hamas leaders killed in fighting with Israel.
Dozens of gunmen and several hundred Hamas members in military fatigues burned a life-sized cardboard replica of an Israeli tank as the crowd cheered.
“Hamas will continue to resist with arms until Palestine is liberated from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea,” said Hamas spokesman Ahmad Hajj Ali, adding that Hamas will not give in to demands by the Palestinian leadership to stop attacks against Israel.
“We warn anyone who tries to disarm the resistance movements because Israel only understand the language of war,” he said.
