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Palestinian women run for cover after an Israeli tank opened fire at Beit Hanun. (Reuters)
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BEIT HANUN, Gaza Strip — Palestinian mothers and
wives braved Israeli helicopter gunships Friday, November 3, to rescue
15 fighters besieged in a northern Gaza mosque, using their bodies as
human shields.
"We risked our lives to free our sons,"
said Um Mohammed, a woman in her 40s, after the daring rescue that
followed protests against a bloody Israeli operation in the northern
Gaza Strip that has killed 24 Palestinians, reported Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
Fighters from various resistance groups, including
Hamas, had been besieged in the Al-Nasr mosque since Thursday,
November 2, seeking protection from Operation Autumn Clouds, one of
the biggest Israeli incursions in Gaza for the past four months.
Braving gunfire and tanks, around 400 women and
other demonstrators gathered to protest against the Israelis at one of
the entrances to the town. Three of them, one a woman, were killed and
another 25 people were wounded, medics said.
Around 200 women then left the main protest to
march on and enter the mosque around 700 metres (yards) away to
collect the gunmen, before walking out again, cloaking the fighters in
the middle of their heavily veiled ranks.
None of the fighters could be seen amid the dozens
of women, who were dressed for the most part from head to toe in
black.
Throughout the rescue bid, Israeli helicopter
gunships opened fire -- not specifically at the women, but intending
to scare them and separate their ranks, but without success. Two women
were wounded, medics said.
The women and fighters they were protecting ran as
far as Izbat Beit Hanun, an area northwest of the town not being
occupied by Israeli army.
"Hundreds of us entered the mosque and
surrounded the resistance fighters to protect them," said one of
the women, 21-year-old Nidaa Al-Radih.
Elderly Palestinians and children are still holed
up inside the mosque, where the compound wall and entrance gate have
been partially destroyed by Israeli shellfire and bulldozers,
witnesses said.
Toll Climbing
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Palestinians pay their last respect of one of their relatives killed by Israel in Beit Hanun. (Reuters)
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Israel pressed ahead with its deadly Gaza offensive
Friday, November 3, taking to 25 the number of people killed,
including women and children.
In addition to the three killed in the women's
protest, an Israeli aircraft attacked a vehicle transporting four
members of Hamas' armed wing in the eastern Gaza City neighborhood of
Shujaiya, according to a medical source and witnesses.
Five people were also wounded in the attack on the
Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades members, added the medical official.
Witnesses said Omar Mushtaha, a chief of a local
unit of the Hamas armed wing was among those killed.
The four men had stopped near a mosque to pray when
their vehicle was hit by a missile, witnesses said.
"We will respond vigorously to these
assassinations of the sons of Hamas. These assassinations will only
make our resistance stronger," said Brigades spokesman Abu
Obeida.
A fifth Hamas member was killed by gunfire from
Israeli soldiers at Beit Hanun.
Suheib Aduane, 21, was a bodyguard for the
Palestinian government's refugees minister, Hamas member Atef Aduane.
A four-year-old boy, Bara Fayyad, also died from
his wounds suffered on Wednesday during the first day of the incursion
in Beit Hanun, which has been completely occupied by Israeli troops.
Four other people were also wounded early Friday in
an air strike on Jabaliya.
More than 70 people, including three women and 10
children, have been wounded since Israeli forces launched its
offensive early Wednesday, November 1.
Palestinian security sources said around 100
Palestinians had been detained during the operation.
The Gaza assault is one of the biggest in the
Palestinian territories since Israel launched an offensive in Gaza in
June under the pretext of releasing an Israeli soldier taken prisoner
by resistance fighters in a cross-border raid.
More than 280 Palestinians have been killed in the
four-month-old offensive, about half of them civilians. Three Israeli
soldiers have been killed.
Israel theoretically withdrew its army and Jewish
settlers from Gaza last year after a 38-year occupation, but
continuing Israeli blockade and checkpoint closures turned the tiny
Strip into an open-air prison for the Palestinians.
Friday's deaths brings to 5,489 the number of
people killed since the start of the second Palestinian Intifada in
September 2000, the vast majority of them Palestinians, according to
an AFP count.
