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Israeli troops killed in Gaza blast-Witnesses
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-05-11 14:21 An explosion ripped through an Israeli military
vehicle in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, killing several soldiers during a raid in
which troops shot dead three Palestinians, witnesses said.
Flames shoot up to
the sky after an Israeli armored carrier was blown up by a landmine in
Gaza May 11, 2004, killing at least six Israeli soldiers, Dubai-based Al
Arabiya television said. [Reuters] | Six soldiers were killed in the blast, Dubai-based Al Arabiya television
said, in escalating violence in the coastal territory since Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's right-wing Likud party voted against his Gaza pullout
plan on May 2.
Palestinian witnesses said they saw the armored personnel carrier torn apart
by an explosion as Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopters raided the
Zeitoun area of Gaza City.
The militant Islamic group Hamas said its fighters ambushed the vehicle,
stopping it with an anti-tank missile at a spot where they had previously
planted bombs.
"The vehicle blew up and caught fire, and all the Zionists inside were
killed," Hamas said in a statement, adding that it had film of the attack
showing dismembered bodies.
Israeli sources said several Israelis were killed and others wounded in an
explosion near Gaza City. But the army declined immediate comment except to say
that key details remained under military censorship.
Israeli troops fought fierce gunbattles against militants in Zeitoun, known
as a stronghold of Hamas, the main group behind a campaign of suicide bombings
against Israelis.
Sharon, now preparing an amended Gaza pullout plan, has vowed to continue to
strike against militant groups.
Three Palestinians, at least two of them gunmen, were killed in the fighting
and at least 40 people were wounded, witnesses and medics said.
"A force has entered the (Zeitoun neighborhood) and we are carrying out a
pinpoint operation against the terrorist infrastructure," an Israeli military
source said.
ARMY RAID
The Gaza military operation began when Israeli undercover forces sped into
Zeitoun in civilian taxis and jeeps, the witnesses said.
They were later joined by tanks and armored personnel carriers as helicopters
fired their machine guns and loud explosions echoed across Gaza City.
Israeli Army Radio said troops destroyed five workshops where Qassam rockets
used by militants against Jewish settlements in Gaza and towns in southern
Israel were being made.
Troops surrounded homes belonging to militants from the Hamas and Islamic
Jihad groups and blew off the doors of several buildings, where they set up
rooftop observation posts, witnesses said.
"We condemn with the strongest possible terms the Israeli military
escalation," said Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat. "The escalation is
only a part of Israel's campaign to continue the path of violence and
confrontation."
Earlier in the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority said it planned to
hold its first municipal elections, in an apparent concession to legislators who
have long been pressing for an end to corruption in city halls.
Palestinian officials said the balloting would begin in the usually peaceful
city of Jericho in August and be completed in the 127 other municipal districts
in the West Bank and Gaza Strip within a year.
But Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie said a general election, last held in 1996 and
part of reforms sought by the international community, would have to await an
Israeli troop pullout from areas seized after an uprising began in 2000.
Mayoral elections were last held in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1980s
under the auspices of Israeli occupation authorities. Both areas came under
limited Palestinian self-rule after interim peace agreements in the early
1990s.
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