Strikes by Israeli Aircraft Kill at Least 11 in Gaza
More Than 135 Hurt, Many Women and Children
By John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, October 21, 2003; Page A19
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2003Oct20.html
JERUSALEM, Oct. 20 -- At least 11 Palestinians were killed and more than 135 were injured Monday in five attacks by Israeli military aircraft on Palestinian militant targets in the Gaza Strip. Most of the casualties were women, children and other bystanders, Palestinian hospital officials and witnesses said.
The attacks began early in the morning and continued off and on for almost 15 hours. The deadliest was the fourth -- a 9:45 p.m. missile strike by Israeli AH-64 Apache attack helicopters on a car in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. That attack killed at least eight people and wounded more than 100, hospital officials and witnesses said. Many of the casualties reportedly were injured when a missile slammed into a street where rescuers were trying to help people wounded by a missile that had hit moments before.
According to an Israeli military spokesman, the attack on the refugee camp was precipitated by a group of Palestinian militants who were caught by Israeli soldiers trying to infiltrate Israel near Nakhal Oz, a kibbutz southeast of Gaza City. Israeli soldiers shot and are believed to have killed two of the militants near the border; others jumped into a car and tried to escape, the spokesman said.
Israeli helicopters pursued the car "deep into the Gaza Strip" and finally "fired a number of missiles towards the vehicle, and the people in it were hit," the spokesman said.
Witnesses said, however, that the people in the car fled after the first missile struck and that those killed were not militants. Afterward, hundreds of people converged on the scene, many holding pieces of the vehicle aloft while chanting "Revenge! Revenge!" the Associated Press reported.
The five attacks, some of which targeted the weapons infrastructure of the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, came a day after the Palestinian group fired eight homemade Qassam rockets from Gaza toward the Israeli community of Sderot, just beyond the northeastern edge of the Gaza Strip. Most of the rockets, which are often inaccurate, landed in fields outside the town, and no one was injured.
The Israeli strikes also followed the killing of three Israeli soldiers in an ambush in the West Bank on Sunday night.
Palestinian officials condemned what they said was Israel's indiscriminate and disproportionate response.
"These Israeli acts do not help cease-fire talks, they discourage them," Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia told reporters in Ramallah.
"We have been facing the most disproportionate use of force since Adam and Eve," said Saeb Erekat, a member of Qureia's cabinet. "Israeli F-16s are launching missiles at crowded neighborhoods in Gaza and the world is silent. . . . Such attacks only add to the complications and lead to more violence."
"We don't choose the arena for combating terrorism, and unfortunately terrorists are making use of the Palestinian population to hide behind," said an Israeli military spokeswoman, Maj. Sharon Feingold. In densely populated urban areas, "innocent bystanders are liable to be hurt, and we regret that very much, but we cannot stand by and allow the continuation of the flow of weapons and ammunition and explosives . . . and not do what we have to do."
The series of attacks began at about 8 a.m., when an Israeli F-16 fighter jet apparently dropped a bomb on an unfinished house in Gaza City's Sajaiye neighborhood. An Israeli military spokesman said Hamas used the house as a workshop, mainly to produce Qassam rockets and mortar shells, but also antitank missiles. Palestinian security officials said the building apparently was used by Hamas as a weapons storehouse.
No one was killed in the strike, but at least 10 people were injured, including four children -- one age 2, another 4 -- and three women, Palestinian hospital officials said.
At 11 a.m., Israeli Apache helicopters swooped over central Gaza City and fired at least two missiles at a white Peugeot pickup truck on Al-Jala Street, killing two masked Hamas militants and a 35-year-old motorist, hospital officials and witnesses said. At least 15 other people, most of them pedestrians, were wounded, hospital officials said.
Palestinian security sources said the two militants apparently had gone to the site of the first blast to collect any undamaged materials. They said it appeared that the men were spotted by Israeli forces.
"Suddenly a big flame came from the sky and hit the car in front of me," Ahmed Sobeh, a bus driver, told the AP. Schools had just let out, and "children were trying to cross the road. . . . I saw a person in the car being evacuated, and his body was completely burned."
A statement by Hamas identified the two dead men as Iyad Hilu, a local leader of the al-Qassam Brigades, and a Hamas operative, Khaled Masri. A statement by the Israeli military said that Masri, who was about 36, was a senior member on the production line of Qassam rockets and mortar shells for Hamas. Hamas identified the slain motorist as Marwan Khatib.
An hour later, Israeli Apaches returned to the eastern edge of Gaza City and fired more missiles at a two-room shack that the Israeli military said was used by Hamas to store weapons. Palestinian officials said they believed Hamas members may have moved some of the materials from the first targeted house to the shack, or at least visited it. No one was injured.
Late Monday night, in the fifth attack of the day, Israeli F-16s returned to the scene of the first bombing "to complete the attack," an Israeli military spokesman said. Palestinian hospital officials said 12 people were injured.
In Jerusalem, meanwhile, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told the Israeli parliament that he would accelerate the pace of construction of a controversial fence being built between Israel and much of the West Bank.
"This fence is the best way of foiling terrorism," said Sharon, who also reiterated his cabinet's recent vow to remove Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from the peace process.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company