Israel Kills 8 Palestinians

At least one boy was killed by Israeli fire Thursday. (Reuters)

Anis Abu Awaad, 12, was killed along with three resistance fighters in an air raid, while a tank shell killed two other activists, security officials told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Resistance fighters armed with assault rifles and anti-tank rockets confronted more than 50 Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers advancing near Rafah airport.

As the tanks pushed deeper into the eastern part of Rafah, Israeli gunfire killed a 50-year-old Palestinian civilian man and wounded two others, witnesses said.

Another tank shell killed a member of Islamic Jihad, hospital and security officials said.

Twenty-six other people -- six of them children -- were wounded in THE Israeli operations around Rafah, hospital officials said, adding that seven of the injured were in a critical state. Several women were among the wounded.

Two youngsters, Muhamed Abu Hassan, aged 4, and his six-year-old sister Rihem, were wounded late on Wednesday, August 2, by Israeli tank fire during an incursion in the area of the Dahaniya airport on the outskirts of Rafah, hospital officials said.

At least 162 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched an open-ended military offensive on the impoverished Gaza Strip on claims of recovering a soldier taken prisoner by Palestinian groups to swap for 95 women and 313 children who are among almost 10,000 Arabs in Israeli prisons.

Thursday's deaths bring to 5,309 the number of people killed since the start of Al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000, most of them Palestinians, according to a separate AFP count.

Swap

Palestinian government spokesman Ghazi Hamad said Wednesday that Israel, in principle, has accepted a prisoners swap.

He, however, told reporters in Gaza that until now, "nothing has been reached yet on the specific numbers of Palestinian prisoners that would be freed from the Israeli jails, in case Israel and the Palestinians agree on the swap."

The spokesman also revealed that there were no direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians over the prisoners' swap, adding that "there are third parties, mainly Egypt, which plays a very important role in ending the crisis."

Hamad denied earlier reports that a deal had been reached to release only women and children from Israeli jails in exchange for the Israeli soldier, and that Israel had refused to release prisoners with life sentence terms.

"Even if we assume that there is an Israeli seriousness to release prisoners, so far the number and the proportion of prisoners have not been specified or defined either by the Palestinian or the Israeli side."

So far, there has been no comment from the Israeli side over the agreement of swapping prisoners.

The massive destruction caused by the Israeli bombardment and almost non-stop air raids left the Palestinians with the impression that Israel was only punishing them for elected the resistance movement Hamas to power.