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Israel
Massacres At Least 25 Palestinians On Eve Of Eid Al-Adha
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The bodies
of four – out of 25 Palestinians killed in overnight attacks by
Israeli troops – lie in the morgue in Rafah. |
GAZA
CITY, Feb. 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - In the latest series of
Israeli strikes from the sea, land and air on Palestinian cities and refugee
camps, at least 25 Palestinians were killed and scores others were injured on
the eve of the Muslim Al-Adha Feast.
With
hardly a pause since Wednesday, February 20, Israeli tanks rolled into Gaza City
early Thursday, February 21, for the first time in the 17-month Intifada, or
uprising against occupation, and blew up a local radio station, witnesses said.
Two Palestinians were seriously wounded in the Israeli attack.
The
director of the transmission center, Khaled al-Siam, said the Israeli occupation
troops had entered the two-story building, which broadcasts television and FM
radio to the east of the city, before placing the explosives.
Loudspeakers
at mosques called on Palestinians to confront the Israeli invaders, and police
and resistance fighters raced to the scene.
Israeli
navy ships also opened fire with machineguns on two Palestinian police outposts
on the coastal city, Palestinian security sources said.
Occupation
troops also killed five Palestinians and wounded 35 in the Brazil and Hai
Assalam refugee camps in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip near the Egyptian
border Thursday, Palestinian doctors said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
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A wounded
Palestinian policeman, shot by Israeli troops, treated at a hospital in
Gaza City early Thursday. |
The
five men were named as Mohammed al-Nams, 21, Raed al-Luly, 25, Ehab Abdelwahab,
16, Bassem Asana, 25, and Samir Abu Saud, 39. They were all civilians, according
to Palestinian security sources.
About
10 Israeli tanks had rumbled 1.5 kilometers (one mile) into the refugee camps in
Rafah, next to the border with Egypt, Palestinian security sources said.
Israel
launched simultaneous helicopter strikes on Palestinian security buildings in
three towns in the West Bank and Gaza Strip Thursday, targeting in particular
the Force 17 guards of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
In
Ramallah, Apache helicopters blasted an administrative and finance office of the
guard unit, injuring a woman working there.
The
missiles from the Apache helicopter hit the building used by guests who come to
visit Arafat by helicopter, sources said.
Arafat
visited the building after the strike to examine the damage and told
journalists: "Israel is trying to frighten the Palestinian leaders, but it
will not succeed. The Palestinian leadership is not afraid of planes and
rockets, nor even of uranium."
Meanwhile,
five Israeli missiles caused substantial damage to a building shared by Force 17
and the Palestinian police in Rafah.
Apaches
also fired a missile at the central police station in the city of Nablus in the
northern West Bank, destroying three rooms and a kitchen but causing no
casualties, Palestinian security officials said.
Elsewhere
in the Occupied Territories, two Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli soldiers
manning a checkpoint in the village of Baka al-Sharkiyah, on the 1967 Green Line
border, north of the West Bank city of Tulkarem. The soldiers fired at the
Palestinian men who opened fire in retaliation for repeated Israeli incursions
and aggressions.
The
past week has been one of the bloodiest since the latest Palestinian Intifada
began in September 2000. Israeli strikes claimed 18 Palestinian lives only
Wednesday. Fifty-four Palestinians alone have been killed in the past week.
On
his part, far-right Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced Thursday –
after a meeting of Israeli ministers – a "different course of
action" in the large-scale military operation against Palestinians. He gave
no details, but his spokesmen said Israel would reduce the number of large
operations in favor of smaller-scale actions". That would include a
continuation of the targeted assassination of resistance activists, the
spokesman said.
The
Palestinians might be changing their tactics as well. Several Palestinians close
to the resistance groups said the checkpoint assault reflected a new focus aimed
at targeting Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank and Gaza as opposed to
martyr operations inside Israeli cities.
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A
Palestinian rescue worker surveys the damage at a local broadcasting
station destroyed by Israeli troops. |
The
chief of the Tanzim group, a wing of the Palestinian resistance Fatah group,
Marwan Barghouthi, announced opening a new stage of resistance operations. He
said attacks would now center on block posts of the Israeli occupation army.
Barghouthi described them as "the main symbols of humiliation of the
Palestinian people".
"Firing
and raids on the positions of the Israeli forces can be regarded by the Israeli
government as a new strategy worked out and approved by a number of Palestinian
organizations," Barghouthi said Wednesday evening.
Palestinians
buried their dead Wednesday. Thousands of angry Palestinians marched behind
coffins throughout the Palestinian areas, pledging revenge and vowing to keep up
the fight. "Israeli civilians will not be safe as long as our people are
not safe," said Nasser Awais, a leader of the Al-Aqsa Brigades, a wing of
President Arafat's resistance Fatah group.
In
light of the deteriorating situation, Palestinians asked Wednesday for an urgent
U.N. Security Council meeting, moving to hold Israel accountable for a
"crisis situation."
Arafat
has been trapped in his West Bank headquarters in the town of Ramallah,
surrounded by Israeli tanks, for more than two months.
Sharon
said that Israeli pressure on Arafat is meant to speed his replacement by other
leaders.
However,
Arafat responded by saying: "either tanks nor planes can scare us. They
won't prevent us from achieving our demands."
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