Strikes by Israeli Aircraft Kill at Least 11 in Gaza

[Dreamer128]

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

[Dreamer128]

And in other news:

Sharon repeats desire to remove Arafat

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has renewed his threat to remove Yasser Arafat from power. In a speech to Israel's parliament, Sharon described the Palestinian president as "the biggest obstacle to peace." He also pledged his commitment to the US-backed "road-map" initiative and said he believed a breakthrough in peace efforts is possible in the next few months. The Jewish state's latest military crackdown, however, is doing nothing to bring that about, in the view of the Palestinian Prime Minister.

Ahmed Qurie condemned Israel's use of air strikes. "It will not help us as a government who wants to reach a ceasefire," he said." Therefore we call for the Israelis to think in a very serious way about a ceasefire agreement because I think this is the only way to create an atmosphere for negotiations." On the streets of Gaza City, the talk was not of negotiations or a ceasefire but revenge - as hundreds of angry mourners staged a funeral rally for Hamas members killed in one of the Israeli attacks.

http://www.euronews.net/create_html....7f2059de0b91a1

[Donut]

It's like deja vu all over again.

[khazadman]

I like how this puppet Qureia says that the actions of the Israelis are not helping maintain the cease fire. What a joke! Just what does this idiot think the palestinians were doing trying to sneak into the kibbutz, play checkers with some of the people living there? They were going to kill men, women, and children in their sleep.

[Ar-Cunin]

Originally posted by Donut: It's like deja vu all over again.

yes

[WillowIX]

Originally posted by Donut: It's like deja vu all over again.

Couldn't agree more. It's amazing how succesful the Israeli surgical attacks against hamas members are.

[Gab]

Originally posted by khazadman: I like how this puppet Qureia says that the actions of the Israelis are not helping maintain the cease fire. What a joke! Just what does this idiot think the palestinians were doing trying to sneak into the kibbutz, play checkers with some of the people living there? They were going to kill men, women, and children in their sleep.

If you care so much about women and children, then care about all the Palestinian women and children who were killed or injured in Israel's attack.
No offense khazadam, but you seem to only care about Israel's people. There's been innocent Palestinians who were killed as well.

[ 10-21-2003, 10:27 PM: Message edited by: Gab ]

[Skunk]

Not everyone in the Israeli government agrees with the proportionality of the 'response', nor the disregard of the lives of the civilian populace that these attacks represent:

...Israeli commentators also suggested that the army had been "letting off steam" after Palestinians killed three soldiers in the West Bank on Sunday.

However, Israel's response was so disproportionate that it extracted unusually harsh criticism from within the governing coalition.

"We should not carry out mass killings in order to strike two or three terrorists," said Interior Minister Avraham Poraz, of the Shinui Party.

"I would rather [the militants] escape."

Yosef Paritzky, the Minister of Infrastructure who is also from the Shinui Party, urged Israel to apologise to, and compensate, the victims.

"We are not at war with the Palestinian population," he said...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3211618.stm

khazadman,
Qureia's point was that the mass killings are fueling support for Hamas et al:
"Opinion polls suggest that during the course of the three-year Palestinian uprising the popularity of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas has increased by 60%.

According to a recent survey 75% of Palestinians saw the devastating suicide bombing carried out in Haifa several weeks ago as a just response to what Israel was doing to them.

It is likely there would be similar support for any Palestinian retaliation for the Gaza strikes.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3211618.stm

Clearly then, this action is playing directly into the militants hands. They could not have organised a better recruitment and donation drive for themselves if they'd beamed non-stop commericals and handed out flyers for a year in every middle-eastern country.

That is obviously not very helpful to the peace efforts.

[Donut]

From today's Telegraph.

Call for revenge after Israelis kill 12
By David Blair in Nusseirat
(Filed: 22/10/2003)


Gaza rang with calls for retribution yesterday after the heaviest Israeli air strikes in months killed 12 people and wounded more than 100.

Anger rose further last night after a Palestinian man was shot dead and nine were wounded in an incursion into Ramallah.

The most destructive raid was in Nusseirat refugee camp, where an Apache helicopter gunship fired a missile at a car carrying four Hamas members.

After the vehicle exploded, killing those inside, a crowd of hundreds gathered. Seconds later, the Apache fired a second missile into the centre of the throng, killing five and wounding at least 70.

"People were screaming for ambulances," said Mahmoud al-Hawajri, 26, who was seriously hurt. His pregnant wife, Ghada, 25, sustained severe chest injuries. It is not known whether their unborn child will survive.

The air raids on Monday followed 17 recent rocket attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip. The strikes, by Apaches and F16 fighters, left Palestinians furious and made violent retaliation against Israel all but inevitable.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad issued a joint statement pledging to hit back. "The two movements agreed to confront the Zionist aggression . . . and to urge all Palestinian factions and resistance forces to co-ordinate to confront this aggression," it said.

Not all the air raid victims agreed. Salah Mohammed Hamdal, 50, a teacher, was left with a punctured lung and numerous shrapnel wounds.

But he said: "We don't want revenge. We want to live in peace. If we take revenge, they will take revenge and we will take it and the killing will go on for ever."

On a day of fury, his was a lonely voice.

[Black Baron]

the idf has published photos and video films that showed that no one was near the terrorrists, during the attack. Palestinians lied.
Parizky and others opened their mouthes before the saw the facts.
Was published today in "yediot ahronot". 22.10.03