Palestinian women and children, more join the homeless everyday

Additional Reporting By Mustafa el-Sawwaf, IOL Correspondent

GAZA CITY, Dec 24 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Two Israeli settlers and one soldier were injured Wednesday, December 24, in a series of Palestinian resistance attacks, in a quick retaliation for the massive incursion that left nine Palestinians slain in the last 24 hours and drew international condemnation.

A makeshift Qassam rocket, named after Hamas armed wing, wounded a couple of Jewish settlers in the northern Gaza Strip, the Israeli radio said Wednesday.

One of the wounded was in a serious condition after the rocket made a direct hit on a house in the settlement of Nisanit.

A second Qassam rocket hit the southern Israeli town of Sederot near the Gaza Strip early Wednesday but there were no casualties, the Israeli broadcaster added.

Hamas military activists also attacked settlements along Erez checkpoint with Qassam rockets and mortar bombs and near Khan Younis city.

The Jewish settlements are deemed illegal by the International community, and Israel defied all calls for dismantling them.

Qassam Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in a statement obtained by IslamOnline.net that it was rather out of revenge for the Tuesday “bloody sweep”.

"It is a reaction to the Rafah thrust," read the statement, referring to the massive raid into the southern Gaza Strip city that also left 40 people, including children, injured in one of the bloodiest days in Palestinian occupation forces.

"We will continue attacking our enemies until they well understand that we are acting in one voice," read the statement.

The attacks came a few hours after the two main resistance groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad called on Palestinians "to unite in the face of the Zionist aggression".

"Killing innocents in Rafah will not go unpunished," the Islamic Jihad said.

Fresh West Bank Incursion

Some 30 houses had been totally destroyed and another 30 partially damaged (AFP)

In the meantime, Israeli occupation forces carried out a new incursion into the northern West Bank of Tulkarem.

Backed by 15 armored vehicles, the invading forces pushed into the city, making house-to-house searches and slapping a curfew on the panicked inhabitants.

They laid siege to the house of Yasser Nezal, whom Israel claims he is a member of Fatah military wing and responsible for masterminding a number of anti-Israel attacks, Palestinian public security service said.

The house occupants were forced out there in cold, as the soldiers searched the house while opening heavy fire in random, eyewitnesses said.

Nezal was not at the house, they added.

One Israeli soldier was injured during the raid when his convey took machine-fun fire in the city, the Israeli Radio said.

House Demolitions

The Israeli army called a halt Wednesday to the massive Rafah raid, that was denounced as a "massacre" by the Palestinians and condemned by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Israeli Army sources confirmed that they were pulling out of Rafah refugee camp, as Palestinian security sources told Agence France-Presse (AFP)  that 30 houses had been totally destroyed and another 30 partially damaged during the incursion.

The raid was condemned by U.N. Secretary General Annan who said that Israel must do more to protect civilians.

"Israel, as the occupying power, must protect the civilian population and desist from using disproportionate force," said Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard.

The secretary general strongly condemns the latest military incursion," he said. "He strongly urges the government of Israel to refrain from such violent actions and return to peaceful negotiations."

The response from the United States was muted, merely reiterating appeals for Israel to avoid harming civilians.

"We've always made clear that Israel has a right to defend itself but needs to decide its actions in a way that doesn't result in the harm to innocent life and that doesn't disrupt prospects for forward movements towards peace," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.

Observers said the U.S. position came in tandem with Washington's biased policy towards Israel against world community's barrage of criticism for collectively punishing Palestinian civilians.

Thirteen members of Israeli army's most elite commando unit publicly refused to serve in the occupied Palestinian territories, saying the army's operations there are as oppressive as immoral, Israeli press reports said Monday, December 22.

The move came three months after 27 reserve and active duty airmen signed a letter  last September addressed to Sharon, refusing to carry out "immoral and illegal" raids on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.