topic by
real watcher
7/23/2002 (6:02) |
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Note that this attack occurred just after Hamas offered to cease its attacks if Israel withdrew from occupied territories.
Israeli F16s Attack
Gaza City, 15
Palestinians Dead, 145
Wounded
Monday, July 22 2002 @ 08:46 PM GMT
Update: Fifteen Palestinian civilians were killed, nine of
which were children and three were women, while 145
others were wounded late last night in an Israeli jet
strike on Gaza City, medical sources and witnesses said.
An F-16 fighter plane rocketed a building in the city in an
attempt to assassinate the Gaza head of the armed
wing of the Hamas movement, Salah Shehade, who is
believed to be one of the three adult men who died in
the carnage.
Witnesses said the warplane fired a missile that leveled
five houses in a Gaza City neighborhood. CAIR reported
that two of the slaughtered civilians were babies aged
between two months and 18 months.
Five children aged between three years and five years
also died as well as an 11-year-old boy, CAIR reported.
A 15-year-old girl who was killed in the attack turned out
to be the youngest daughter of Salah Shehade who was
with her father at their house when the assault took
place, according to BBC Radio.
Earlier Report
GAZA CITY:12 Palestinians were killed and over 140,
mostly women and children, wounded Monday evening
when Israeli warplanes attacked a residential area in
the Gaza City. Among the victims was Saleh Shehade,
50, a top Palestinian activist.
Tens of Thousands of Gazens rushed to the street
protesting the Israeli cruelty, and a state of shock has
engulfed the occupied Palestinian territories.
The attack came one day after the Palestinian group
Hamas announced it’s willingness to stop bombing
Israeli targets, in exchange for the withdrawal of the
Israeli army from recently occupied West Bank cities, and
the end of the assassination policy carried out by the
right-wing government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
The offer was made by Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual
leader of Hamas during an interview with Al Jazeera
satellite television. The Israeli response however came
in a different form than expected.
Witnesses to Monday's killings said that an Israeli F-16
warplane fired several missiles at Palestinian homes,
apparently targeting the house of Saleh Shehade, a
Hamas activist in Gaza, reducing his home and several
others around it to rubble.
Officials at a local hospital say as many as 140 people
have been wounded.
“They (the Israelis) are so cruel, so merciless. Why don’t
they just leave us alone. Leave our land, get out of our
lives,” a Palestinian man wept as he tried to help in the
rescue efforts.
Another lamented as he gazed at a body of a little girl
being dragged, crushed and clearly dead, from under the
rubble: “what crime did that little girl commit. I don’t
think she is even old enough to understand that her
crime was being a Palestinian.”
Hundreds of people crowded the area, leveled to the
ground and chants of “god is great,” were heard every
time a dead civilian is brought out from under the rubble.
Many of the dead and wounded were children.
Earlier, a Hamas spokesman said that Salah Shehade, a
leading activist, was among those killed in the attack.
The spokesman later said that Shehade is still alive.
However, Hamas activists declared in Gaza, using loud
speakers that the leading activist was killed in the Israeli
raid.
The attack comes as
officials from both sides
held a somewhat
successful meeting to
reduce the tension
created by the Israeli
occupation of the West
Bank. Israel’s attack on
Gaza however
worsened the situation.
“This exactly what Sharon wants,” a Palestinian political
analyst from the West Bank told the Palestine Chronicle
in condition of anonymity. “Every time you have some
progress and calm, Sharon provokes Palestinians to
retaliate. It’s his policy and ever-successful agenda.”
“The fact that the attack targeted a Hamas leader was a
response to the offer made by Sheik Yassin to end
hostility and occupation. Sharon doesn't want to give
Hamas the chance to appear reasonable before the
world media. Now, what else do you expect from Hamas
but to hit back, and when they do, the Israelis will
scream foul and say that they are fighting a war on
terror.”
A Hamas leader in Gaza, Dr. Abdul Aziz Rantisi was
quoted by Al Jazeera as saying, in response to the
attack: “there shall be no calm, no rest. We will retaliate
to the Israeli attack and will reach Israelis even in their
own homes.”
“Murder In Gaza“: Photo Gallery of Gaza Massacre
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