Palestinians carry a wounded man into the main hospital in Gaza City after Israel launched a military thrust into the city.

By Mostafa al-Sawaaf, IOL Palestine Correspondent

GAZA CITY, January 26 (IslamOnline) – Israeli occupation troops pushed deep into Al-Zayton district south of Gaza City, leaving 13 Palestinians dead and over 64 other wounded some seriously, IslamOnline reported Sunday, January 26.

Up to 60 Israeli tanks and armored vehicles thrust into the district backed by U.S.-made Apache helicopters, which shelled the houses of Palestinian citizens, eyewitnesses told IslamOnline, adding that the Israeli troops took used the houses as military barricades and used dozens of citizens as human shields.

Defending their land, Palestinian fighters stood up to the barbaric aggression and engaged in an internecine battle with the aggressors, using R.B.J mortars, explosive devices and automated machineguns.

The Israeli occupation troops, in addition, demolished and shelled several houses owned by Palestinian martyrs, workshops and factories, igniting a major conflagration in the district area of Asqola. 

In the meantime, Ezzedine Al-Qassam Martyrs’ Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, released a statement on Sunday, in which they asserted that their fighters succeeded in blowing up three Israeli tanks in southern Gaza City and fired three Qassam rockets into the Israeli settlement of Ili Nisai.

Israeli Occupation Troops Stormed Beit Hanon

Backed by Apache helicopters, the Israeli occupation troops, meanwhile, stormed the Gaza Strip city of Beit Hanon and al-Sudaynia north of Gaza City  on Saturday, January 25.

In Khan Yunis, the occupation troops assailed al-Fughari area in the south-eastern part of the city and Apache helicopters shelled the Palestinian houses.

On Friday, January 24, Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said that he and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided to launch a series of military operations in the Gaza Strip in response to a Palestinian missile attack on an Israeli settlement.

The Israeli aggression coincides with the Cairo-hosted inter-Palestinian dialogue.

Egypt proposed on Friday a one-year truce between the Palestinians and the Israelis, however, it asserted that the Palestinians were entitled to resist the occupation troops and supported Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.