Most Palestinian fatalities are civilians, women and children

JABALIYA, October 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Dozens of Palestinians were killed by Israeli occupation forces carrying out a massive sweep into the northern Gaza Strip, as 100 Israeli tanks rolled into the area in a large scale offensive Israel calls “Days of Penitence”.

At least 32 people were killed in the invasion, making Thursday, September 30, one of the deadliest since the beginning of Intifadah against Israeli occupation four years ago.

Hospital officials said the death toll includes four whose bodies an Israeli military source said were being held by the army, and at least 140 people wounded in the day's violence.

Among them was a cameraman, who was shot and seriously wounded.

Eleven Palestinians -- at least seven of them teenagers -- were killed in two separate incidents of Israeli tank fire on Jabaliya in which groups of people near the entrance to the embattled refugee camp were hit.

At least seven Palestinians were killed by an Israeli tank shell in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north of the strip, and ten others were slain when Israeli forces hit a marketplace at the area.

TV screens showed panicked people mourning the death of children by Israeli fire in the massive sweep amid a pool of blood and massive scenes of destruction in the refugee camp.

More than 20 houses and the outside wall of a school were destroyed by the invading army. Many families were displaced in consequence.

Palestinian SOS

Over a hundred Israeli tanks are pushing into Gaza (AFP)

The narrow streets of the impoverished Jabaliya camp, home to 100,000 people, resembled a battlefield and hospitals were put on an emergency footing to treat the flow of casualties.

Dozens of resistance fighters armed with assault rifles, hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades hid in alleys, away from Israeli snipers posted on rooftops.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat sent an urgent message to international leaders “to move immediately to stop the Israeli massacres which are continuing against our people,” the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

It said the message was addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, UN chief Kofi Annan and Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende whose country currently presides the European Union.

And the UN agency for Palestinian refugees warned that the Israeli operations had disrupted its work and called on Israel to guarantee the safety of its staff.

The Thursday sweep came a few days after four senior officers of an elite Israeli air force unit hit out at the military's “immoral” policies  in the occupied territories in a letter published by Israeli newspapers Tuesday, September 28.

Re-occupation

Massive destruction (AFP)

But Israel reacted with defiance to the appeals, saying they would continue the sweep despite the high death toll of Palestinian civilians. Three Israeli soldiers were killed during the invasion.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon approved recommendations by top defense officials for a broadening of the invasion, army radio reported at the end of the deadly day.

Israeli radio said Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz had decided to carry out a large-scale ground operation which would not be limited by time, in an attempt to halt rocket attacks by resistance fighters.

Around 100 Israeli tanks were seen moving deep into the northern Gaza Strip early Friday shortly after Sharon gave the green light for the army.

Israeli radio said Israeli occupation forces were considering temporarily re-occupying Gaza and could mobilize reserve troops.

But the plans come in contrast to Sharon’s claims that his forces would withdraw from Gaza .

Israeli soldiers have been widely accused of carrying out several violations in occupied Palestinian territories.

The latest Israeli thrust raised the death toll to 34 Palestinians and five Israelis since the army swept en masse with tanks into the northern Gaza area on Tuesday, September 27, night.

It also raised to 4,389 the overall number of people killed since the start of the Palestinian Intifadah. They include 3,365 Palestinians and 953 Israelis, according to an AFP count.

Limited Access to Aqsa

In other developments, Israeli police decided to limit access to occupied Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound as it said it feared disturbances for the fourth anniversary of the Intifada.

Only women and men aged above 40 will be authorized to pray at the compound after mid-day.

A widely-criticized visit by then opposition leader Sharon to the site, Islam’s second holiest site, sparked the first clashes of the Intifada on September 28, 2000 .