Palestinians ferry two of fellowmen wounded in the Israeli raid

Additional reporting by Mustafa el-Sawwaf, IOL Correspondent

GAZA CITY, July 3 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Four Palestinians were killed and several others injured Friday, July 2, in an Israeli raid into the Gaza Strip, while Israeli bulldozers went on reducing Palestinian homes to rubble in Rafah.

Meanwhile, Palestinian resistance groups publicly executed a Palestinian for betraying the whereabouts of resistance fighters to the Israeli occupation authorities.

Yasser Al-Arqa, 23, was the first victim of the Israeli onslaught. He was killed when Israeli troops opened fire indiscriminately at Palestinian homes in Al-Brazil refugee camp.

"Israeli bullets riddled Arga’s body as he was staying at home and injured two others," witnesses told IslamOnline.net.

In the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli troops killed Ahmad Kareem, a 55-year-old mentally deranged Palestinian who was walking by Jewish settlement Netzer Hazani in Khan Yunis.

Israeli military bulldozers also demolished 10 Palestinian homes in the southern city of Rafah, which has been the scene of the bloodiest Israeli incursion in as many as two years.

The Israeli raid into Rafah in May claimed the lives of up to 62 Palestinians, flattened 155 homes and drove some 2000 residents homeless.

Arja's brother collapses after viewing his dead brother in the hospital in Rafah (AFP)

In the north, Israeli troops killed 23-year-old Ahmad Nasif in Beit Hanun.

Palestinian medics further said Hamza Nahid Haboush, 15, died of his gunshot wounds inflicted by Israeli Apache helicopters in a random shooting at homes in Beit Hanun Thursday, July 1.

The deaths took to 3,149 the number of Palestinians killed since the September 2000 outbreak of the Intifada.

Israel has stepped up its offensives on the Gaza Strip recently despite plans to withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories by the end of 2005.

After sacking  two ministers of the far-right National Union who were opposed to his plan, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon got a conditional cabinet approval of his disengagement plan.

The modified version essentially calls for phased evacuation of all 7,500 Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip, but requires cabinet voting before such a decision could be implemented.

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Friday that the Israeli occupation troops will remain in the northern Gaza Strip until Israel completes its planned Gaza withdrawal.

"The army will continue to control the area where it deployed (Monday) until the last minute before the withdrawal," Shaul Mofaz told the Yediot Aharonot daily.

Egypt wants an Israeli commitment to cease raids into the Gaza Strip before sending security advisors to help maintain security after the Israeli withdrawal.

Snitch Executed

The Palestinian collaborator falls on the ground as he is shot by Palestinian fighters

Meanwhile, Palestinian resistance fighters shot dead on Friday a Palestinian collaborator with Israel before hundreds of onlookers in the West Bank town of Qabatiya, north of Nablus.

Mohammad Rafiq Daraghmeh, 45, was riddled with automatic fire after he answered "yes" to accusations of betraying the whereabouts of Palestinian resistance fighters to the Israeli troops, Reuters news agency said.

A throng of onlookers chanted, "Kill him, kill him!'", while relatives of Daraghmeh said his family had disowned him.

Jamal Abu Rab, local commander of Fatah’s armed wing Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, said: "It was necessary to make an example for others to deter them from collaborating."

Reuters said Palestinian resistance groups have killed at least 30 fellow Palestinians accused of being informers for Israeli forces.

A cohort of Palestinian analysts have warned that moles for the Israeli occupation troops are a cancer eating away at the Palestinian body.