Medics help a Palestinian wounded seriously during the Israeli raid

Additional Reporting By Mustafa Al-Sawaf, IOL Palestine Correspondent

GAZA CITY, April 20 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Five Palestinians were killed and 70 others injured during an overnight raid into Yabna refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah late Saturday, April 19, during which an Israeli soldier was also killed three others injured.

Using loudspeakers, Palestinian fighters announced that the Palestinian resistance also damaged and destroyed four Israeli tanks during the incursion.

More than one hundred Israeli tanks thrust into the refugee camp covered by Apache attack helicopters, in one of the biggest sweeps in more than 30 months of the Palestinians’ Intifada against the Israeli occupation.

“Some Palestinians were seriously injured and Naser Hospital works in tandem with European hospital, which sent medics and ambulances to help the injured,” Dr. Ali Moussa, director of Abu Youssef Al-Nagar Rafah hospital, told IslamOnline.net.

Moussa listed the dead as Hussan Zaanu, 17, Sayeed el Masri, 19, Mohamed al-Hamayda, 20, Nahed al-Nawajha, 29 and Mahmud Abu Koch, 15.

Moussa said Israeli occupation forces prevented ambulances from reaching the injured, urging the residents to stay home in view of a possible new Israeli “massacre”.

Eyewitnesses said Israeli reinforcements stormed the camp, targeting Palestinian activists from Ezzudin Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic resistance movement, Hamas.

“The Israeli soldiers are trying to storm houses after having already destroyed more than three houses and two highway shops,” one Palestinian told IslamOnline.net.

“They also destroyed the camp’s infrastructure as well as some streets in Rafah, which fell into darkness due to power outage by Israeli air strikes,” he added.

Qassam Brigades Hit Back

Israeli military vehicles “do their job” among homes and kids

Meanwhile, one Israeli was wounded early Sunday, April 20, as rocket fire from the Gaza Strip hit a home in the southern Israeli town of Sderot setting it ablaze, Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoting municipal officials as saying.   

“The operation came in response to the Israeli incursion into Rafah refugee camp,” Hamas officials told IslamOnline.net.

The densely populated refugee camp, near to the Israeli-Egyptian border, is home to about 60,000 people.

The BBC's James Rodgers, in Gaza, says there are reports that Israeli soldiers carried out house-to-house searches.

Witnesses said the Israelis had brought empty buses with them, apparently because troops were planning to detain suspected militants.

On Saturday, a Palestinian cameraman was killed by Israeli gunfire in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian medics said.