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Merkava
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GAZA
STRIP, West Bank, March 14 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - For
the second time in a month, a crack Israeli Merkava battle tank was
destroyed by Palestinian resistance activists Thursday in Gaza,
killing and wounding nine Israelis.
Also
in Ramallah two more tanks were destroyed by anti tank fire.
The
Gaza attack was claimed jointly by Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades - an
armed off-shoot of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah
movement - and the Salahudin Brigade, which unites activists mainly
from Fatah and the Islamic resistance movement Hamas.
Three
of the Merkava’s crew were killed and two others wounded. The tank
guarded the road between Netzarim and the Karni crossing point
between the eastern Gaza Strip and Israel.
In
Damascus, press spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation
of Palestine (PFLP), Mohammed Al-Baba, claimed the destruction of
the Merkava earlier Thursday.
Al-Baba
said, “PFLP armed wing, the Abu-Ali Mustafa Brigades, detonated a
50-kilogram (110-pound) explosive device under an Israeli tank near
the Jewish settlement of Netzarim”.
“The
bomb was planted on the Gaza strip main road, close to the Magharqa
mosque,” Al-Baba added.
"The
Abu-Ali Mustafa Brigades pledge to keep on striking the enemy and
its soldiers and gangs of settlers until the end of
occupation," he added.
Eyewitnesses
in the scene told IslamOnline that flames could still be seen rising
from the destroyed tank, while other armored vehicles of the convoy
were also damaged in the bomb blast.
Helicopters,
military cars and ambulances were rushed to the scene, where injured
soldiers were taken to Soruoka hospital in Biet Shieva.
Details
of the two other tanks destroyed in Ramallah were seen by witnesses
and told to AFP. The first tank was seen in flames in the western
Al-Bireh district, following a large explosion. The second tank was
in the southern Massiun district, close to Ramallah hospital.
On
February 14, 2002, a Palestinian operation knocked out a Merkava,
the pride of the Israeli army, with a heavy explosive charge, also
killing three of the crew. It was the first time the Palestinians
destroyed an Israeli Merkava since the outbreak of the Intifada
against Israeli occupation in late September 2000
Meanwhile,
Israel pulled some 40 tanks out of the occupied West Bank town of
Ramallah early Thursday after U.S. President George W. Bush called
the Israeli army campaign "not helpful", according to
Palestinian security sources.
Some
30 tanks left their positions and moved east of the self-rule town
overnight. Earlier, another 10 exited traveling toward the north,
the sources said, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Some
60 tanks are still inside Ramallah on the third day of Israel's
largest military campaign in the region in 35 years.
The
redeployment follows Bush's statement that recent Israeli military
actions against Palestinians were "not helpful" to efforts
to forge peace in the Middle East.
The
military reshuffling also anticipates the arrival of U.S. envoy
Anthony Zinni who is scheduled to arrive in the region later in the
day.
"Frankly,
it's not helpful what the Israelis have recently done," Bush
said during a press conference. "I understand someone trying to
defend themselves and to fight terror, but the recent actions aren't
helpful."
With
additional reporting by IOL Palestine correspondent.
