|
Israeli forces kill 16 in Gaza
15/01/2008 18:38 - (SA)
Gaza - Israel has killed 16 Palestinians, nearly all of them Hamas militants, in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, in a raid the Palestinian Authority called a "slap in the face" to US President George W. Bush's peace efforts.
A volunteer from Ecuador, working on an Israeli kibbutz, or
farming community, bordering the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip,
was killed by a Palestinian sniper near the frontier fence.
Hamas claimed responsibility for shooting the man.
The violence, four days after Bush ended a visit to Israel
and the occupied West Bank, resulted in the highest number of
Palestinians killed in a single day since late 2006. Israel said it mounted the operation to curb rocket attacks from Gaza.
Local medical workers and Hamas said 16 Palestinians, 13
Hamas men, one other militant and two civilians, were killed
in fighting with Israeli forces in the northern part of the
territory and east of Gaza City.
"There was a massacre today against our people, and we say to the world that our people will not remain silent against such crimes," said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah faction lost control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas in June.
In a statement, the West Bank-based Palestinian government
said Israel's "ugly crimes were a slap in the face" to efforts by Bush and the international community to resume peacemaking, that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state.
Makeshift rocket fired from Gaza
Israeli President Shimon Peres said as long as Gaza
militants continue to fire rockets into the Jewish state, "we are left without a choice but to answer and stop it".
An Israeli police spokesperson said a makeshift rocket fired
from the Gaza Strip landed in the Israeli coastal city of
Ashkelon, causing no injuries or damage, after the raid began.
Hamas Islamists oppose US-backed peace talks between
Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Bush predicted during his
three-day visit that a peace treaty would be signed before he
left office in January 2009, despite deep public scepticism.
"This is one of the results of the Bush visit. He encouraged the Israelis to kill our people," said Mahmoud al-Zahar, a Hamas leader, as he viewed in a Gaza hospital the body of his son, a militant killed in the latest fighting.
Israel, which pulled troops and settlers out of the Gaza
Strip in 2005, frequently mounts operations against militants in the territory in an effort to halt rocket attacks disrupting
life in border communities.
- Reuters
|
News
