Additional
Reporting by Mustafa el-Sawwaf, IOL Correspondent
GAZA
CITY, March 4 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A Palestinian
boy was killed in his school courtyard in southern Gaza strip during
an Israeli raid early on Thursday, March 4, as the toll of
Palestinians killed since the beginning of Intifadah against
Palestinian occupation hit more than 3,000.
Mohammed
Othman, 14, was fatally wounded in the stomach and four of his
classmates also suffered gunshot injuries while they were in the
school courtyard during the incursion in the Rafah refugee camp,
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Another
teenager was also struck on the hand earlier outside the school during
the raid, which the Israeli army claimed was aimed at demolishing
tunnels used to smuggle weapons from under the nearby border with
Egypt.
Backed
by Apache helicopter gunships, a number of tanks and heavy military
vehicles swept into Rafah.
“The
invaders carried out large house-to-house searches, and demolished a
house and part of a mosque,” eyewitnesses said.
The
latest death brings the overall Palestinian toll since the start of
the Intifadah against Israeli occupation in September 2000 to 3,453,
according to the Palestinian National Information Centre.
Fresh
Casualty
 |
|
A
file photo of an Israeli attack that left two bodies charred
beyond recognition (AFP)
|
In
the meantime, invading occupation forces killed a Palestinian activist
in a bomb explosion at his home in the Rafah camp.
The
activist was named as Awni Kallab, a member of the military wing of
Popular Resistance Committees faction.
“The
leader of Salaheddin Brigade in Rafah - was killed in a air raid on
his home that also left 11 of his family and neighbors, including his
wife and two children, injured,” the group said in a statement sent
to IslamOnline.net.
The
independent faction was formed after the eruption of Intifadah, with
an aim “to face occupation and keep the strategic option of
resistance alive,” according to its website.
Four
Palestinian resistance activists were
killed by Israeli occupation forces Wednesday, March 3, in two
separate attacks.
Three
Islamic Jihad members were assassinated
on February 28 when an Israeli helicopter gunship fired three
missiles at a car in a northern area.
Also
Wednesday, Israeli forces banished a 52-year-old Palestinian from
Bethlehem to the Gaza Strip after a two-year detention.
The
decision to banish Mohamed Al-Qitata came with no coordination with
the Palestinian Authority or setting a framework for how long he would
stay in exile, Palestinian security sources said.
Dozens
of Palestinians held in Israeli detention camps have been forced out
to the Gaza Strip on claims they are threatening Israel’s security.
New
Count
A
new Palestinian report put the number of Palestinian deaths at 2,930
and the injured at 38,562 from the beginning of Intifadah to January
2004.
More
than 523 Palestinians could be added as their names were not
registered due to Israeli measures, the report of the National
Information Centre, was quoted by Al-Quds Press as saying.
The
centre - an offshoot of the Palestinian State Information Service -
said that the injured include 5,660 students and teachers as well as
103 ill people trying to across Israeli checkpoint for getting
treatment.
The
new statistics said that Israel have detained 6,068 Palestinians, now
held in 22 camps, including hundreds of students, teachers and sick
people.
More
than 55,119 houses were damaged in Israeli incursions into the West
bank and Gaza Strip, read the report.
It
said that more than 12 schools and universities were closed down, 302
shelled and 43 others turned by the occupation forces into barracks.
