- The U.S. government called on Israel Monday to investigate
the circumstances surrounding the deaths of 14 Palestinians killed during
an IDF operation in the Gaza Strip earlier in the day.
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- "We call on the Israeli military to investigate
the circumstances surrounding these deaths and we expect immediate steps
to be taken to prevent the recurrence of tragic incidents such as these,"
U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, telling a daily briefing
that the U.S. government was "deeply troubled" with the outcome
of the operation.
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- "Israeli operations were undertaken in crowded civilian
areas and involved firing on a medical facility. It's very important that
Israeli forces do their utmost to act in a manner that avoids harm to civilians
and humanitarian facilities," Boucher said.
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- Fourteen Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded
when IDF tanks backed by helicopters raided a Palestinian neighborhood
in the Gaza Strip early Monday morning, with the Palestinians insisting
all were civilians, and the IDF equally adamant that all but one were armed
militants.
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- Several hours later, IDF troops fired assault rifles
and machine guns into Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, where hundreds of
people had gathered to learn about the fate of relatives, witnesses said.
Four more people were wounded by army fire at the hospital, including a
14-year-old boy hit in the neck and a paramedic wounded in the chest.
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- Israeli security officials called the operation "very
important" and "obligatory" in striking at a Hamas stronghold
that Israel had refrained from attacking since the start of the uprising
more than two years ago.
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- Also Monday, Palestinians said that IDF troops had shot
dead a 42-year-old Palestinian man near the West Bank city of Nablus.
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- "The moment that the army went in there, they were
fired on from every window and every opening, so our soldiers had to do
the job," said Deputy Defense Minister Weizman Shiri. "The most
militant of Hamas men are located there, and if damage was caused to innocent
civilians, we can be sorry, but what can you do - this is war."
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- "They made this massacre against our people,"
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat said at the start of a meeting
in his West Bank headquarters with Javier Solana, the European Union's
foreign policy chief.
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- Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer issued a statement
saying most of the Palestinian dead in the assault in the town of Khan
Younis were "armed men who shot at our forces." He also said
that the raid was mounted to "stop terrorist attacks and arrest Hamas
terrorists".
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- The operation began in the pre-dawn hours, when Givati
Brigade infantry troops, combat engineers and more than two dozen IDF tanks
and armored vehicles rumbled into the al-Amal neighbourhood west of Khan
Yunis.
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- After a single missile was fired at a house in the area,
viewed as a stronghold of Hamas activity, the troops were met by a volley
of fire from Palestinian gunmen and a gunfight ensued. The circumstances
of the raid were not clear, though the army said before the operation began
that Palestinian militants had fired a rocket at a nearby settlement, causing
no casualties.
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- But as troops began to pull out of the area several hours
later, a helicopter fired a second missile which struck close to a crowd
of Palestinians who had ventured out of their shelters to return home,
killing several people, witnesses and medics said.
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- Brigadier-General Yisrael Ziv, commander of the IDF's
Gaza Division, said Monday that the neighborhood was a Hamas "nest
of terror" and that an initial investigation showed that IDF forces
had aimed only at armed men.
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- Ziv dismissed reports that the casualties were local
residents en route to mosque services.
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- The missile strike came at the end of the four-hour incursion.
Residents said people came out into the streets around 4:30 A.M. (02:30
GMT) when they heard the tanks pulling out, but two helicopters remained
overhead, and one of them fired the missile.
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- Abed Ouda, 29, said he was parking his car when the missile
struck. "I heard a huge explosion," he said, "and people
were wounded and bleeding on the ground in front of my car."
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- Dr. Mohammed Abu Dallal from the Nasser hospital said
two of the dead were killed in the gunbattle, while at least seven more
"were killed as a result of the missile fire."
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- An IDF source confirmed an operation was taking place
in the area but would not give details.
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- Erekat denounces raid as massacre Palestinian Minister
Saeb Erekat denounced the Israeli raid as a massacre and called on the
international community to protect the Palestinians.
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- Erekat said he believed the raid was timed to disrupt
the visit of Javier Solana, the foreign policy chief of the European Union,
to the region.
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- "Every time we witness efforts to revive the peace
process and put it back on track, like those being exerted now by Solana,
the Israeli government moves to conduct such war crimes and murder innocent
civilians because the end game of the Israeli government is to resume full
occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank," he said.
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- A senior aide to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser
Arafat, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, called for an international peace-keeping force
to protect the Palestinians.
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- "This is a crime that proves that Israel should
be punished and isolated. There should be international sanctions. Israel
is sabotaging efforts by the Quartet and the U.S. to revive peace efforts,"
he told reporters in Ramallah.
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