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Palestinian Killed, 10 Wounded, During Israeli Raid in Gaza
JERUSALEM, Aug 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli soldiers shot dead a Fatah activist during an overnight raid on Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza strip, Palestinian security sources said in news agency reports.
Abdel Rahman Abu Bakra, 29, was shot in the head when Israeli tanks opened fire during the raid, wounding 10 others. An Israeli army spokesman confirmed the operation, but denied that tanks were involved, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
"More than ever, the fight must continue," said a fellow gunman of Abu Bakra.
Having watched his friend get shot, the young man, dressed in black jeans and sporting a short beard, knows full-well that he could have been the one slain during the Israeli incursion into an autonomous Palestinian sector.
For that night, like every night, the two men sneaked up to a clump of trees on the outskirts of Khan Yunis, where fellow activists from their armed group were lying in wait.
Their eyes were focused on the Jewish settlement of Gush Katif, less than 100 yards away. It is this kind of settlement that lies at the heart of the bloody dispute between Israel and the Palestinians.
Lying between the Palestinian gunmen and the first settlement blocs is a sand dune, where Palestinian trucks had earlier been collecting sand.
"We saw a bulldozer backed by tanks coming towards us," said the young activist, 27, who lives in Khan Yunis.
"We fired a warning shot and they withdrew," he said. But shortly afterwards the group was hit by a barrage of tank and machine gun fire.
"They knew we were here and wanted to kill us," he said.
An advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon defended the raid as "a legitimate policy of self-defense which consists of intercepting terrorists wherever they can be found."
"We are here to defend our people," countered Abu Bakra's friend. "We have chosen to resist, and now more than ever will fight on. We have lost one of us but he will doubtless be avenged."
Khan Yunis, an area under full Palestinian autonomy, is only the latest in a string of incursions into Palestinians towns and cities.
Israel plans to carry out more raids into Palestinian autonomous zones, said Avi Pazner, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's senior diplomatic advisor, on Saturday,
Pazner was defending the overnight raid into Khan Yunis.
He described the raid on a Palestinian-controlled area as a "legitimate policy of self-defense," vowing that this policy will continue.
Israeli occupation forces stormed into the Palestinian city of Jenin in the northern West Bank late Monday night. That was the first ground raid into a city under full Palestinian control since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising, or Intifada, nearly 11 months ago.
Late Tuesday, Israeli forces entered three Palestinian villages near Bethlehem in the southern West Bank.
Pazner warned that Israel would pursue its policy of incursions "independent of whatever foreign countries think."
Israel's main ally, the United States, has criticized the raids.
Pazner, however, added, "The Americans have told us they are happy with our policy of restraint, and they hope to provide pressure on Arafat in order that he does something."
The killing of Abu Bakra in Gaza sparked tensions Saturday as crowds gathered for his funeral.
The storming of Khan Yunis marked the second Israeli raid this week into an area under full Palestinian control - a violation of the 1993 Oslo peace accords.
A Palestinian security source said Israel intentionally killed Abu Bakra as part of its policy of "liquidating" Palestinian activists, a strategy first implemented in the early days of the Intifada.
In further Israeli aggression, a Fatah resistance activist was wounded by Israeli gunfire in the West Bank, Palestinian security sources said.
A bullet struck Ahmad Bisharat in the leg when soldiers opened fire on the village of Tamun in the northern West Bank.
Elsewhere, the body of a Palestinian man was found riddled with bullets in a garbage dump in the village of al-Khader, near Bethlehem, news agencies reported.
The victim, aged 31, had been kidnapped at gunpoint from his home by masked men the previous evening, under charges of being a collaborator with Israel, witnesses said. His name was being withheld.
And a six-month-old baby was wounded by three live bullets in the abdomen as he sat with his mother in a taxi near a West Bank roadblock Saturday, when Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinians trying to cross the checkpoint, news agencies reported.
Meanwhile, according to a poll published Friday in the Israeli paper Al Maariv, about half of Israelis favor tougher measures against Palestinians, showing a significant increase over a similar survey a week earlier, the Times of India reported.
The Gallup poll showed that despite excessive force used against them and world governments calling on Israel to show restraint, 51% of the Israelis surveyed believe that their army is not using enough force against the Palestinians.
On another note, Israel's deputy minister of internal security, Guidon Ezra, called on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat Saturday to offer rewards for the capture of Palestinian activists sought by Israel.
Ezra said that Israel should also be able to interrogate Palestinian resistance activists in order to determine what might dissuade them from carrying out bomb attacks.
"They should understand, for instance, that we have the ability to take action involving their families," he warned.
Israel came into existence in 1948 after Jewish groups launched a war against their Muslim neighbors in 1948 and declared today's state of Israel. Arabs and Muslims believe Israel is an extension of the colonial period that saw the occupation of Muslim and Arab countries by Western powers.
Israel, backed by some Western powers, claims Jerusalem as its capital, but both Muslims and the United Nations do not recognize this.
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