Palestinians carry the body of a man killed by in the raid (AFP)

By Mostafa Al-Sawaf, IOL Correspondent

GAZA CITY, January 28 (IslamOnline.net) – At least 13 Palestinians were killed at dawn Wednesday, January 28, in a new Israeli incursion into the southern outskirts of Gaza City.

Witnesses told IslamOnline.net that Israeli armored vehicles and tanks mounted a bloody raid on Al-Zeitun suburb, opening fire intensely and randomly at houses and destroying a Palestinian security post.

Palestinian medics identified six of the dead as Moussa Daloul, 27, Iyaad Al-Raai, 35, Ahmad Ali Abu Rekab, 30, Marwan Attiyah Basal, 30, Othman Mohammad Jindiyah, 19, and Sameh Toutah, 22.

Director of emergency cases at Al-Shefaa Hospital, Dr. Goma Al-Saka, said the death toll might rise, adding that ambulances raced through the streets carrying the victims, with one of them taking Israeli fire.

Palestinian resistance fighters stood up to the Israeli raid, firing rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and opening fire at the occupation troops, witnesses said.

The latest deaths bring the overall toll since the start of the Palestinian Intifada in September 2000 to 3,719, including 2,787 Palestinians and 865 Israelis, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) count.

Meanwhile, an Israeli special unit backed by armored vehicles stormed the southern district of the West Bank city of Tulkarm and arrested a number of Palestinian youths, including 28-year-old Malik Saada Saleh Al-Jallad, a leader in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

Dressed in civvies and traveling in a Ford with Palestinian plates, the Israeli soldiers stormed Jallad's house, witnesses told IOL.

"Jallad tried in vain to make an escape as the occupation troops were tightly surrounding the house," his brother, Muhannad, said.

He added that the Israeli troops forced his family, including women and children, to leave the house and held them in a neighboring one.

Witnesses said dozens of employees at Tulkarm's education directorate left their offices under Israeli duress, adding that the occupation troops also fired stun bombs at nearby schools.