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Israeli Occupation Forces Assassinate 2 Palestinians, Kill 8-year-old Child
31/08/2003
Palestine Media Center- (PMC)
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed a Palestinian child and wounded four others in the southern Gaza Strip of Khan Younis a few hours after extra-judicially assassinating two Palestinians in a helicopter air strike in the al-Bureij refugee camp, the fifth such Israeli strike in less than ten days.
Palestinian medical and security sources confirmed that two Hamas activists identified as Abdullah Akel, 37, and Farid Mayat, 40, were killed when Israeli Apache gunships fired several missiles at their vehicle in the central Gaza Strip refugee camp.
At least five civilians were wounded in the air strike, medical sources added.
Palestinian witnesses said the van was engulfed in flames after US-made Apache helicopter gunships, escorted by F-16 fighters, fired five missiles at it. It was traveling on the busy road between the Bureij and Nusseirat refugee camps.
Witnesses said one of the men inside the car jumped out the window, but he was hit by another missile.
Dozens of Hamas activists gathered around the hospital in the Deir el-Balah refugee camp, where the bodies of the two victims were taken, vowing to avenge the latest strike.
The Palestine National Authority (PNA) officials condemned the air strike and called for immediate international intervention to save the peace process.
Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amre said the missile strike was “part of the comprehensive war against the Palestinians” and blocked the resumption of peace negotiations.
“We hope that our friends, the Americans, will intervene in order to contain this deterioration of the situation,” Amre said.
The PNA has frequently called for sending monitors to help get the peace “roadmap” back on track.
Palestinian officials also argue that the US should play a greater role in backing its peace plan and restoring calm.
Palestinian Minister of Cabinet Affairs Yasser Abed Rabbo, who laid responsibility for the current escalation on Israel, took a similar position.
“I think that (Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon’s government plans to assassinate the road map...(and) that some extremists in the U.S. administration are facilitating this mission for Israel,” he said last week in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
“We hold the U.S. government responsible for developments in the coming hours,” Abed Rabbo said.
“The United States must play now an active role and to send empowered monitors immediately and intervene to prevent the collapse of the truce, and get back to the roadmap,” he said.
“The Palestinian leadership reiterates it is prepared to impose law and order...and punish all (law) violators, but this can't be achieved while Israel pursues its war against the Palestinian Authority and its civil and security institutions,” Abed Rabbo told reporters.
“Therefore, the Palestinian Authority's implementation of its internal security duties hinges on halting Israeli attacks and halting (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon’s plans to wage comprehensive war against the Palestinians,” he said.
The PNA increased its efforts to restore the rule of law and public order in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and announced it had frozen the bank accounts of charities run by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Islamic organizations.
The Palestinian security forces also destroyed tunnels leading from Egypt to Gaza used to smuggle arms and drugs.
Separately, an eight-year-old Palestinian girl was shot dead by Israeli occupation troops in Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical sources said.
Aya Fayad was hit by bullets fired from an Israeli occupation army post on the edge of the illegal Israeli settlement of “Neve Dkalim”, which lies very close to the camp, they said.
Four other people were moderately to seriously injured, medics said.
In the West Bank, IOF raided Saturday Ramoun village, east of Ramallah city, and imposed a curfew on residents, witnesses said.
Witnesses added that IOF soldiers raided several houses in the village and detained one citizen, identified as Zayed Kahla, 25.
In the village of Sayda, north of Tulkarem, Israeli occupation forces detained three Palestinian youths after raiding their families’ houses, Palestinian security sources said.
The detainees were identified as Mustafa al Ghani, Mu’ath Hammed, and Mohamed Radad, all in their early twenties.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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