GAZA
CITY, September 7 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Israeli
occupation forces killed 14 people in an air strike on a football
pitch in eastern Gaza early Tuesday, September 7, as a group of rabbis
urged the army to show less restraint on attacks against Palestinian
civilians.
The
victims, all members of Hamas' military wing, the Ezzedin Al-Qassam
Brigades, were undergoing military training on the pitch, Hamas
sources were quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying.
As
Hamas vowed to exact their revenge for the killings, Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's spokesman said that the movement's leadership
was also on the target list.
Vengeance
The
dead and wounded, most of them wearing combat uniforms, were taken to
Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital where hundreds of Hamas activists, some of
them armed and masked, as well as curious onlookers gathered as the
news of the attack spread.
"Vengeance,
vengeance," some shouted.
The
victims arrived at the hospital in cars as well as in ambulances. Some
bodies were torn to pieces and blood spurted over the ground from
gaping wounds, an AFP reporter said.
The
Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades vowed its response would be comparable to
the attack in Beersheba.
"Our
response to this crime will come. Our double strike in Beersheba is an
example of the kind of blow which we can inflict on the
Zionists," it said in a statement.
Peace
Efforts Affected
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|
Palestinians
vowed revenge (AFP)
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In
a separate statement, Hamas also claimed responsibility for firing a
rocket which landed on the southern Israeli city of Sderot several
hours after the air strike. No one was injured.
Palestinian
negotiations minister Saeb Erakat said Israel's strike was intended to
sabotage diplomatic efforts to kickstart the troubled peace process.
"We
firmly condemn this new Israeli crime against our people which has
cost the lives of 14 martyrs," Erakat told AFP.
The
strike took place "just hours after the visit of an Egyptian
delegation aimed at reviving the peace process and instituting a new
mutual ceasefire."
Egyptian
Foreign Ahmed Abu Al-Gheit and intelligence services chief Omar
Suleiman were both in Ramallah for talks Monday, partly focused on
efforts to close Palestinian ranks.
But
Sharon's spokesman said that its campaign against Hamas would also be
extended to a pursuit of the movement's leadership as well as its foot
soldiers.
"We
will strike Hamas everywhere -- in Gaza, in Damascus -- in order to
avoid the assassinations of Israelis," Raanan Gissin told AFP.
Khaled
Meshaal, the Damascus-based politburo chief who emerged as the overall
Hamas leader after Israel assassinated two other top figures earlier
this year, is thought to be on top of the list of targets.
The
Israeli attack, carried out by combat aircraft, was Israel's first
major response to a double bombing attacks in the southern city of
Beersheba last week which left 16 Israelis dead, as well as the two
bombers.
The
Beersheba attack was the major Palestinian retaliation for the Israeli
assassination of Hamas founder quadriplegic Sheikh Ahmad Yassin on his
way back from dawn prayers in March. The assassination has drawn
massive world outcry.
Less
Restraint
Meanwhile,
a group of rabbis from the West Bank Jewish settlements has called on
the Israeli army to show less restraint in attacks on Palestinians
that could harm the civilian population, public radio reported
Tuesday.
In
a petition addressed to Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, the rabbis said
that the deaths of civilians was inevitable in the ongoing conflict
with the Palestinians but that Jewish lives "must come
first".
"There
is no war in the world in which it is possible to delineate entirely
between the population and the army, neither in the US war in Iraq,
Russia's war in Chechnya, nor in Israel's wars with its enemies,"
the rabbis said.
"Should
the army fight the enemy, leading to civilian casualties (on the
Palestinian side), or should it refrain from fighting, and thus
endanger our civilians?
"We
will not be panicked by Christians who preach the gospel of turning
the other cheek nor will we be impressed by those who prefer the lives
of our enemies to our own lives," they added.
News
of the petition emerged after the overnight Israeli air strike on
Hamas.
The
signatories included the chairman of the committee of settler rabbis,
Dov Lior, and the influential former National Religious Party deputy
Haim Druckman.
