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Palestinians mourn the latest
Israeli victims. (Reuters)
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BEIT HANUN, Gaza Strip — In a new bloody
offensive into southern Gaza, Israeli occupation forces killed on
Wednesday, November 1, seven Palestinians and wounded more than 45
others, while the ruling Hamas confirmed that Israel has agreed to a
parallel prisoner exchange.
Israeli occupation soldiers hunkered down on
rooftops, randomly opening fire on Palestinians the battered town of
Beit Hanun, security sources and witnesses told Islamonline.net.
Medical sources said four of the victims were
members of Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, a
member of Islamic Jihad and a policeman.
The identity of the seventh victim was not
immediately clear.
With helicopters and drones flew overhead, Israeli
infantry units and a dozens of Israeli tanks and armored vehicles are
now in full control of the town.
"They are blocking access to the
hospital," medical sources told IOL.
Israeli bulldozers have razed three houses in the
town while another dozen homes were hit by Israeli tank shells.
An Israeli army spokesman confirmed that a
"major operation" was under way but refused to say when it
would end.
The occupation army confirmed reports that one
soldier was killed in Beit Hanun.
More than 280 Palestinians have been killed since
Israel launched a wide-scale offensive in Gaza on the pretext of
seeking the release of a soldier captured by Palestinian resistance
groups to swap for Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails.
UN special envoy for human rights, John Dugard, has
accused Israel of "collective punishment" of the
Palestinians in Gaza.
The Israeli government not only said the
long-running onslaught would continue but also authorized security
services to be ready to launch a large operation.
Massacre
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There are more than 10,000
Palestinians being held in Israeli jails and detention centers.
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Premier
Ismail Haniya both condemned the new Israeli "massacre" in
the Gaza Strip.
"President Abbas has strongly condemned the
Israeli massacre that has left six martyrs and nearly 40 wounded in
Beit Hanun," his office said in a statement.
Branding the operation an "odious crime",
Abbas called on the Israeli occupation to cease immediately all
hostile actions against the Palestinian people.
He appealed to the international community to
"intervene rapidly to put an end to these aggressions and stop a
new deterioration" in the regional situation.
In an emergency cabinet meeting in Gaza City,
Haniya condemned the Israeli "massacre" as part of pressure
exerted on our people and its government.
"The massacre is the first consequence of
Lieberman joining the Israeli government," he said.
Ultra-right politician Avigdor Lieberman, leader of
the Yisrael Beitenu party, took office as Israel's first strategic
affairs minister on Monday, October 30.
Notorious for his hardline stance, Israeli media
reported that during Wednesday's security cabinet meeting Lieberman
suggested that the Israeli army should apply tactics used by the
Russian army in Chechnya to the Gaza Strip.
The United States, Israel's most powerful ally,
said this week that Israeli incursions in Gaza were an issue of
"self-defense."
Prisoners Swap
In a related development, the ruling Hamas said
that Israel has agreed to a parallel prisoner swap.
"The Egyptian officials confirmed that Israel
has finally agreed parallel exchange of prisoners," Imad
al-Alami, a Hamas leader, told IOL after a late Tuesday meeting with
Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Soliman.
Palestinian factions holding Gilad Shalit, an
Israeli tank gunner, have firmly refused to release him before Israel
agrees to free a number of Palestinian detainees in parallel.
Egypt is brokering behind-the-door negotiations
between the Palestinians and Israel.
Palestinian sources familiar with the negotiations
have told IOL that Egypt reached an understanding with Israel whereby
Shalit would be handed over to an Egyptian security delegation in the
Gaza Strip.
"A day or two later Israel would free 640
Palestinian woman and minors and two months later 360 of long-serving
Palestinian detainees," they added.
There are more than 10,000 Palestinians being held
in Israeli jails and detention centers.
Palestinian sources have also told IOL that Israel
would release abducted Palestinian ministers and MPs and pledge not to
re-capture them days after the release as it usually does.
Israeli occupation forces have detained one-fifth
of the Palestinians in the occupied territories or 650,000 people
since the 1967 war, according to a recent report by the Palestinian
Ministry of Detainees and the Released Prisoners.
Prisoners are abused and beaten by their Israeli
jailers, and subjected to humiliating body searches, the report said.
