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First-ever Destruction Of An Israeli Crack Battle Tank In Gaza
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| A doctor treats a wounded Palestinian child at Shifa hospital in Gaza City |
GAZA
CITY, Feb 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Israeli occupation army was
stung by the first-ever destruction of a crack battle tank in the Gaza Strip and
by the death of one of its elite commanders in the West Bank, news agencies
reported.
Two
Palestinians opened fire Saturday morning on a "group of Israelis"
near a roadblock close to the West Bank town of Ramallah, killing one person,
Israeli public radio reported.
The gunmen then fled in a car toward Ramallah, the report said.
The
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's
Fatah faction, claimed a killing in the area, saying it was in "reprisal
for Zionist aggressions and incursions."
Overnight,
Israeli warplanes later raided the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza
Strip, firing three rockets on the public security headquarters, Agence
France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Palestinian
security officer Abdel-Salam Yunis was found dead under the rubble and 30
others, civilians and policemen, were wounded.
Meanwhile,
a Palestinian Qassam-2 rocket struck near the Kfar Azza kibbutz in southern
Israel, causing no casualties, an Israeli army spokesperson said.
"The
Palestinians have again fired a Qassam-2 rocket on Israeli territory, despite
our warnings and the operations we launched following the first firings,"
he said, referring to two rockets that hit southern Israel last Sunday.
"Israel
considers that firing rockets constitutes a threat to its security, and will
know how to react as needed to put an end to it," he said. "This is a
dangerous escalation to which we must respond."
A
Palestinian was killed overnight during an Israeli incursion into the El-Bureij
refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian security sources said, having
earlier reported that a teenager died in clashes following the incursion. The
body of Hassan Mohammed al-Sakran, aged around 20, was handed over to
Palestinian officials by the Israeli army Saturday morning, the sources said,
reported AFP.
The
death brings the number of people killed since the start of the Intifada in
September 2000 to 1,211, including 926 Palestinians (mostly children and
teenagers) and 263 Israelis.
On
Saturday morning, Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian teenager and wounded
five others during the incursion, Palestinian security sources said.
The
Israeli occupation army, overnight, killed a Palestinian police officer and
wounding 30 other people in F-16 strikes on the northern Gaza Strip.
The
Palestinian leadership issued a statement late Friday "forcefully
condemning and denouncing the dangerous Israeli escalation."
The
leadership had warned the United States, European Union, Russia, China and Japan
of the "dangers for the peace process of this escalation," it said.
Earlier
Saturday, Israeli tanks re-entered al-Maghazi refugee camp, in the central Gaza
Strip, for the third time this week and invaded the village of Juhu al-Dik, to
the north, Palestinian security sources said.
They
later moved into the northern village of Hai al-Zeitun, destroying the military
intelligence headquarters there, Palestinian security sources said.
Meanwhile,
countering U.S.- and British-backed Israeli efforts to step up the pressure on
Arafat, France and Russia urged Israel to lift its blockade on the Palestinian
president, who has been confined by the Israeli army to his West Bank
headquarters since December 3.
Israel
"should re-establish the chairman of the Palestinian Authority's freedom of
movement," said a statement issued in Paris and agreed by Russian Foreign
Minister Igor Ivanov and his French counterpart, Hubert Vedrine.
In
another development, the Egyptian Writer's Union called the Arab writers' unions
and other Arab cultural organizations, as well as world-wide media, to take
strong stances against the "racist Israeli atrocities against the
Palestinians", reported Palestinian News Agency (WAFA). This was declared
in a statement, which the Union issued. The Union also sent a letter to U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan declaring their solidarity with Palestinian
writers.
WAFA
also reported that the Israeli occupation forces stopped several martyrs' family
members from travelling through Rafah to perform Hajj (the annual Muslim
pilgrimage).
Some
of them have been stopped for the second consecutive year, such as Jamal Al
Halabi, reported WAFA. This breaches his religious expression, he said.
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