GAZA CITY (AFP) - Israeli
machinegun fire wounded 16 Palestinians, including nine children, in the
southern Gaza Strip.
Two tanks opened fire without provocation after rumbling a few metres (yards)
up Rafah's main boulevard, Salahedin street, which sits on the Gaza Strip's
Israeli-controlled border with Egypt, Palestinian security sources said.
Six people were immediately hit, including a 12-year-old boy Ahmed Abu
al-Shahar and 53-year-old Ahmed Asfour who were both struck in the head
and were seriously wounded, security and medical sources added.
The gunfire hit several houses and a UN-administered school for Palestinian
refugees and triggered clashes between soldiers and stone-throwing youths
that left another six people wounded, including an 11-year-old boy who
was shot in the head and a three-year-old hit in the leg, the sources said.
Both were listed in serious condition, the source added.
Gunmen started firing on the soldiers and tanks lobbed at least one shell
in the militants' direction, wounding another four people, security sources
said.
The tanks had been stationed on the street as the Israeli army began building
a new military tower on the border, where the army suspects Palestinian
militants smuggle weapons inside Rafah from tunnels into Egypt, the sources
said.
The fighting comes as the US administration has voiced discomfort in the
past week over a string of killings of Palestinian civilians by the army. |