Palestinian women sit helplessly in front of their houses demolished by the Israeli incursion

By Mutafa al-Sawaf, IOL Palestine Correspondent

GAZA CITY, March 2 (IslamOnline.net) – In an another Israeli incursion, the Israeli occupation soldiers shot dead a Palestinian early Sunday, March 2, in Khan Yunis refugee camp in the south of the Gaza Strip, and wounded some 32 others.

Mohammed Marai Abdel Hadi, 25, was killed when 20 Israeli tanks stormed the refugee camp backed by Apache helicopters.

During the incursion, which ended Sunday morning, the army blew up to seven buildings including a seven-storey one and another changed into a military barricade. 

The occupation troops hampered ambulances, demolished the wall of the camp’s hospital and wrecked havoc on Al-Shafai Mosque, Palestinian security sources told IslamOnline.net.

The sources said that the Israeli troops have started withdrawing from the western part of the camp but still exist in the Austrian neighbourhood, which came under heavy bombardment from the Israeli warplanes and tanks.

The sources added the denizens were forced to leave their houses under duress, noting that the Israeli soldiers thrust into houses and rounded up a number of Palestinians.

The Palestinians resistance, meanwhile, succeeded in planting  sideway explosives and set them off when an Israeli tank passed at one of the camp’s streets, leaving two Israelis wounded, said the Israeli radio.

The death brings to 3,001 the number of those killed in the Intifada launched late September 2000, including 2,250 Palestinians and 695 Israelis.

Last week, the Israeli occupation troops launched sweeping incursions on the Gaza Strip city of Beit Hanun and the West Bank city of Nablus.

Close to 200 houses have been destroyed by the occupation army since August 2002, mostly belonging to resistance activists and as a deterrent to future resistance operations.

Rights organizations charge this policy amounts to collective punishment as Palestinian homes are typically inhabited by large families.

However, eye-witnesses and security forces told IOL that the Israeli soldiers are carrying out “a systematic operation of flattening all buildings they come across in Nablus, not just houses of alleged resistance activists.”