Israel Kills 12 Palestinians
By Yasser Al Banna and Mustafa el-Sawwaf
GAZA CITY - In order to kill a "targeted" Hamas activist, the Israeli occupation forces stormed Thursday, May 1, a densely populated Gaza City area, cordoned off a four-storey building and massacres other 12 Palestinians, including a two-year-old toddler and two teenagers.
Some 60 Israeli armored vehicles, including tanks and bulldozers backed by helicopter gunships, stormed the Shajaiya district at the small hours of the day.
Failing to kill Hamas leader Yusef Abu Hin, 38, the Israeli occupation forces eventually had to dynamited the building, razing it to the ground and killing the resistance activist and his two brothers, Ayman, 30, and Mahmud, 29, who were holed up inside the building with him, Palestinian security and hospital sources.
The die-hard Hamas activist and his brothers had held out for 15 hours under the fire of Israeli tanks, infantry and helicopter gunships.
Seven Israeli soldiers were wounded in the incursion assault, which dealt a heavy blow to peace hopes that had arisen Wednesday, April 30, when international diplomats finally unveiled a long-awaited "roadmap" to ending the 31-month conflict.
Ten other Palestinians were killed during the Israeli army incursion including two-year-old Amir Ahmed Ayad who was struck by a bullet to his head by Israeli occupation forces during the dawn incursion.
Fadel Abu Hin, another brother of the slain Hamas activist, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) during the clashes that Israeli occupation troops surrounded the building housing some 50 people, and warned of an imminent "massacre" as the soldiers were opening fire and the holed up gunmen returning it.
There were scenes of panic inside the building most of the day, according to a resident on the third floor contacted by phone.
"The army is shelling more and more. The soldiers are firing like crazy in all directions. Several shells have already hit the building," said Nifuz, a young woman who was trapped inside.
"There are many wounded inside, but the ambulances can't reach the building. Some people have tried to leave, but it's too dangerous," she said.
"Where is the roadmap, where is Abu Mazen?," cried a panicked
Palestinian elder trapped inside the houseShe added that the building's inhabitants, including elderly people, women and children, were screaming and crying.
"One old man, Abu Mohammad, kept running around shouting: 'Where is the roadmap, where is Abu Mazen?'," she said, referring to new Palestinian prime minister Mahmud Abbas.
Hospital sources said a 67-year-old man died of a heart attack during the Israeli attack.
Two Palestinian men were also shot dead by Israeli occupation forces carrying out a night-time operation in the Palestinian town of Yatta, south of Al-Khalil (Hebron) in the West Bank, Palestinian security officials said.
One of the men killed was named as Khalid Nakhramri, 27, a local laborer who worked in Israel. The other man was not known.
An Israeli army spokesman claimed troops scouting the town had spotted two armed men and killed them in a gunfight.
In other developments Thursday, the Israeli army imposed a curfew on the southern West Bank town of Bethlehem, and abducted eight Palestinians, witnesses said.
They said Israeli soldiers had also surrounded the Church of the Nativity, allegedly to prevent any “wanted” Palestinians from taking refuge in the holy site.
Other Clashes
Meanwhile, Israeli forces backed with 25 tanks and Apache helicopter gunships pushed near southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah and opened random fire after forcing the residents to leave their houses.
Soldiers called on family members inside to leave the house and planted explosives around it, but they refused, witnesses said. Palestinian gunmen and Israeli soldiers traded fire during the raid, which was still underway.
The Palestinian fighters said they managed to break down one Israeli tank and one jeep vehicle during the fire exchange.
The armed wing of Hamas, Ezzedin al-Qassam, said in a statement, a copy of which was obtained by IslamOnline.net, that it fired five home-made Qassam 2 rockets on two Jewish settlements three kilometers to the east of Gaza City.
British Human Shield Arrested
A British peace activist from the International Solidarity Movement was also arrested overnight in the southern Gaza Strip of Rafah, Palestinian security sources and her organization said.
She was acting as a human shield by spending the night in one of the Palestinian houses threatened with demolition along the border with Egypt when Israeli soldiers took her. There has been no news of her since.
Romany Smith's detention coincided with an army raid into Rafah, which an AFP correspondent said damaged 20 houses on the Egyptian side of the divided city.