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10 Palestinians dead in Rafah
13/05/2004 15:15 - (SA)
Rafah, Gaza Strip - Ten Palestinians were killed on Thursday in Israeli raids on the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah after a second deadly attack on soldiers amid an intense debate in Israel over the future of the flashpoint territory.
Israeli helicopters pounded the refugee camps along the border with Egypt, where five soldiers were killed on Wednesday when Palestinian militants fired an anti-tank missile at a military convoy.
The attack which killed the crew of an armoured personnel carrier came a day after six troops were killed in an APC blown up as it carried out an incursion in Gaza City.
Both ambushes, which caused the Israeli army its worst losses in two days since fierce fighting in the northern West Bank town of Jenin in April 2002, were claimed by the Islamic Jihad group.
A first overnight raid on Rafah left seven Palestinians dead and a second strike killed another three and wounded 15, Palestinian medical sources said.
The army said it was targeting armed militants in the raids, which brought to 26 the number of Palestinians killed in two days of Gaza violence against 11 Israeli soldiers.
The Israeli army occupied and demolished several houses in the impoverished Rafah refugee camps, where more than 11 000 Palestinians have already been made homeless since the start of the intifada three and a half years ago.
The surge in violence in the southern Gaza Strip came as clashes on the northern front were winding up, after two days of intense fighting in the Zeitun neighbourhood of Gaza City.
Israeli forces pulled out of the area after Islamic Jihad handed over remains of the six soldiers killed on Tuesday in Zeitun, following mediation by Egyptian officials and the Palestinian Authority.
The Gaza fighting came amid efforts by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to press on with his plan to pull out of the flashpoint territory, and prompted intense soul-searching in Israel.
A famous Israeli actor whose son was one of the soldiers killed in Rafah accused Sharon's Likud party of being responsible for his death by rejecting the "disengagement" plan.
"I want my son's funeral procession to start at the Likud headquarters in Tel Aviv, because it is the members of this party who are responsible for his death" Shlomo Vishinsky told public radio.
"I do not want my son to have died for nothing, a victim of Likud members. I would like his death to trigger a protest movement in favour of a withdrawal from Gaza, because we have nothing to do there".
Sharon's faithful deputy, Trade Minister Ehud Olmert confirmed that Israel would eventually leave the Gaza Strip, the occupation of which was recently described by Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz as a "historical mistake".
- AFP
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