ISRAEL: In a deadly surge into the Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, Israeli troops yesterday killed 14 Palestinians, including 10 when a group of people was hit by a single rocket, and injured more than 80.
While the Palestinians insisted the dead were all civilians, including a 14-year-old boy, Israel was equally adamant that all of those killed, except for one, were armed militants firing at its troops. A senior army commander conceded the military had taken into account the possibility that civilians might be harmed during the operation.
Backed by armoured vehicles and assault helicopters, troops thrust into the Amal neighbourhood in Khan Younis at about 2 a.m. in what the Israeli army said was an operation aimed at disrupting the "terror infrastructure" of the Islamic militant Hamas organisation. The army met strong resistance from gunmen who fired at the invading troops.
Doctors at Nasser hospital in the town said that more than 20 of the injured were in critical condition and that many had suffered shrapnel wounds to the head, chest and abdomen. They said the injured ranged in age from eight to 75.
Palestinians said 10 of the 14 were killed when a rocket ripped into a crowd of civilians near a mosque. "People were bleeding, many of them lying on the ground," said one witness. "Women were screaming and blood covered the ground."
The army, however, insisted that the men hit by the rocket were militants firing guns and tossing grenades at soldiers.
Witnesses said troops later fired on a hospital in Khan Younis where the injured had been taken, killing one person and injuring three. Israeli military officials also denied this claim, saying troops had not fired on the hospital.
Palestinian cabinet minister Mr Saeb Erekat accused the Israeli government of trying to undermine the latest round of so-far fruitless Middle East peace efforts being spearheaded by European Union foreign policy chief, Mr Javier Solana, who is in the region.
"Israel is going to have a lesson it won't forget," said one armed man in the hospital where the injured were taken. "We are not going to keep silent over these crimes and we won't pay attention to those who call for calm or to cease fire."
Israeli officials did not deny it was inevitable civilians would be killed in such operations, but they said the Palestinians were to blame for instigating violence in the first place.
"This is war and the ones who started this war are the Palestinians," said the deputy Israeli Defence Minister, Mr Shiri Weizman, when asked about the death toll.
Brig Gen Yisrael Ziv, the commander of Israeli forces in the area, said the army had taken into account the possibility that civilians might be harmed in the operation because it was being carried out in a "densely populated area with lots of armed terrorists".
The raid comes two weeks after the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, vowed to strike at Hamas strongholds in the Gaza Strip. It is the second foray deep into the Strip since his remarks.
In ordering the raid, Mr Sharon was risking a second diplomatic reprimand from Washington in just two weeks. The Americans have asked Israel to keep a low profile in the occupied territories ahead of a possible strike on Iraq, and Mr Sharon was forced to end his siege of the compound of Mr Yasser Arafat, the president of the Palestinian Authority, in Ramallah 10 days ago under intense US pressure.
A State Department spokesman, Mr Richard Boucher, said the US was "deeply troubled" by raids in which civilians were killed, but as on previous occasions, he affirmed what he said was Israel's right to defend itself.
Meanwhile, tension between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas turned bloody yesterday when two members of the militant Islamic movement were shot dead by Palestinian police trying to arrest men they suspected of having shot dead a senior police commander in Gaza earlier in the day.