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Israeli Troops Push Into Rafah In Southern Gaza Strip
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A mosque strafed by Israeli machine gun fire in the Rafah Refugee Camp |
GAZA CITY, April 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Monday, a few hours after the “free Arafat plan” was due to take shape, several Israeli tanks and bulldozers pushed into the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip Monday, triggering a battle between Palestinians resisting occupation and Israeli troops, news agencies reported.
The Israeli occupation troops moved 150 meters (yards) into the camp with the tanks firing as they advanced, Palestinian security sources told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
A 15-year-old boy was wounded by gunfire, the sources and Palestinian witnesses said.
Elsewhere, a Palestinian boy was seriously wounded after being hit in the face by Israeli bullets in the town of Rafah, which adjoins the refugee camp, Palestinian medical and security sources told AFP.
Wissam al-Derba, 10, was sitting in front of his house near the Jewish settlement of Rafiah Yam when an Israeli tank opened fire, security sources said.
It was not clear why the army opened fire as there were no skirmishes in the immediate area, the sources said.
The latest Israeli aggression is a clear sign that Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is going on with his offensive against the Palestinians, codenamed “Protecting Shield”, regardless of negotiations brokered by the U.S. to free
besieged Palestinian President.
In Ramallah, meanwhile, U.S. and British security experts began talks Monday with two Palestinian officials on a U.S.-brokered plan to lift the siege on Yasser Arafat's West Bank compound, a senior Palestinian official told AFP.
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo and Mohammad Rashid, Arafat's Economic Adviser, met the U.S. and British teams at an unknown location in the West Bank town at around 8:45 pm (1745 GMT), the source said.
The aim was to discuss the technical details of transferring six wanted Palestinians, holed up in Arafat's compound, to a jail in the West Bank town of Jericho where they will be placed under international guard.
In return, Israel is supposed to end its month-long siege of Arafat
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