Home>News Center>World
         
 

Israel kills 20 Palestinians in big Gaza raid
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-05-19 08:51

Israel's army killed 20 Palestinians on Tuesday in the heaviest raid in the Gaza Strip for years as tanks and infantry thrust into Rafah refugee camp, a militant hotbed, despite an international outcry.

The assault drew U.N. and European Union condemnation given Israeli threats to destroy hundreds of Palestinian homes there. Thousands of Palestinian houses have been razed since they began a revolt in occupied territory in 2000, U.N. figures show.


A Palestinian woman holds a baby in the rubble of her house after it was hit by a missile from an Israeli helicopter, at the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, May 18, 2004. [Reuters]
But the army said there were no plans for any systematic demolition during what it called an open-ended operation to stop the smuggling of arms through tunnels from nearby Egypt.

An army spokesman said troops flattened five buildings from which militants had fired on soldiers and a sixth was blown up when a bomb being prepared by a militant detonated prematurely.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees set up tents to accommodate some 1,600 displaced people.

President Bush called the Gaza bloodshed "troubling" but, addressing Jewish-Americans in a tight election campaign, told the powerful pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC that Israel "has every right to defend itself from terror."

But a senior State Department official said Israeli forces in Rafah on Gaza's southern border were not doing enough to avoid "knocking down houses of people who may be innocent."

The raid led to the highest single-day Palestinian death toll -- civilians as well as militants -- since May 2002 when 23 were killed in an army sweep into the nearby Khan Younis area.

The Rafah hospital morgue became so overloaded that five bodies were shifted to vegetable freezers in a nearby market.

Late on Tuesday, militants fired an anti-tank rocket at cars approaching the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in north Gaza but missed and there were no casualties, the army said. A major explosion had been reported by Palestinians in nearby Gaza City.

GAZA WITHDRAWAL PLAN IN BALANCE

Violence has worsened in Gaza since Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon proposed evacuating troops and Jewish settlers in a plan backed by most Israelis and the United States, but held up by opposition from hard-liners in his right-wing party.

Militant groups want to claim as a victory any pullout by Israel from territories it captured in the 1967 Middle East war, while the army is determined to smash them first.

Israel amassed more forces in Gaza than at any time since occupying it 37 years ago, commentators said, for a raid launched after militants killed 13 soldiers there last week -- the biggest blow to the army in two years.

Before the ground assault, Israeli helicopter gunships killed seven Palestinians, at least three of them gunmen and another a civilian, outside a mosque, witnesses said.

Other Palestinians, including at least one fighter, were shot dead during street battles. A teenage brother and sister were among the dead, killed on the roof as they fed pigeons and hung out washing, residents said.

Air attacks and street clashes wounded around 30 people.

Palestinian medics said soldiers held up ambulances trying to evacuate wounded. The army said it gave passage to all emergency service vehicles once roads were secured.

"We are afraid," said Miriam Abu Jazzar, surveying the blood-stained ruins of her daughter's home, smashed by a missile. "Every hour there is shooting."

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said "a big massacre" had happened in Rafah and called for international intervention to stop Israel's "military escalation and ugly crimes."

Army sources said soldiers had fired only at militants, hitting at least 15 of the gunmen, as they searched house-to-house for wanted men and their tunnels.

Militants fired rockets and set off hidden bombs in the cinderblock camp of 90,000 people, founded in 1949 for some of the 700,000 Palestinians uprooted by Israel's independence war.

Amnesty International, in a new report, said Israel had destroyed more than 3,000 Palestinian houses since 2000. It said demolitions were "punitive" and done without military necessity in most cases, constituting a war crime under international law.

Israel's Foreign Ministry responded by saying the army razed only buildings used as gun nests or hiding smuggling tunnels.

 
  Today's Top News     Top World News
 

WHO: China's SARS outbreak contained

 

   
 

Taipei urged not to misjudge Beijing's resolve

 

   
 

US witness: 'Cover-up' at Iraq Abu Ghraib

 

   
 

Gandhi walks away from Indian PM post

 

   
 

US delegation to Taiwan opposed

 

   
 

Soldier on trial for Iraq prisoner abuse

 

   
  Iraqis demand more power, US holds abuse trial
   
  Gandhi walks away from Indian PM post
   
  Reuters, NBC staff abused by GIs in Iraq
   
  Israel kills 20 Palestinians in big Gaza raid
   
  Plea deal possible in first prison abuse court-martial
   
  US witness: 'Cover-up' at Iraq Abu Ghraib
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  Related Stories  
   
Israel kills 12 Palestinians in big Gaza raid
   
Israeli forces raid Gaza refugee camp
   
Israeli missiles strike Fatah office in Gaza
  News Talk  
  Scandal over humiliation of Iraqi prisoners  
Advertisement
         
主站蜘蛛池模板: 精品国产三级a∨在线| 99热在线观看| 暖暖日本免费在线视频| 亚洲福利一区二区精品秒拍| www.中文字幕.com| 日本夜爽爽一区二区三区| 亚洲欧美乱综合图片区小说区| 窝窝人体色www| 国产99久久亚洲综合精品| 高潮内射免费看片| 国产男女猛烈无遮挡免费网站 | 一本丁香综合久久久久不卡网站 | 免费人成网站7777视频| 美女邪恶色动图gig27报| 国产区香蕉精品系列在线观看不卡 | h视频在线观看免费网站| 怡红院亚洲色图| 中文无遮挡h肉视频在线观看| 最近高清日本免费| 亚洲国产精品一区二区九九| 污网站在线观看免费| 人妻少妇一区二区三区| 精品丝袜国产自在线拍亚洲| 午夜高清在线观看| 美女视频黄频a免费大全视频| 国产一卡2卡3卡4卡公司在线 | 小泽玛利亚一区二区| 一级特黄色毛片免费看| 揄拍自拍日韩精品| 久久99青青精品免费观看| 日本精品高清一区二区| 久久精品国产亚洲7777| 日韩精品欧美精品中文精品| 九九视频精品在线| 最新国产三级在线观看不卡| 九位美女尿撒尿11分钟| 日韩精品视频在线播放| 久久精品青草社区| 日韩欧美综合视频| 久久精品国产99久久无毒不卡 | 全部免费毛片免费播放|