| Israeli soldiers continue killing spree
Monday 19 July 2004, 18:52 Makka Time, 15:52 GMT
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Palestinians have been killed in their homes by Israeli snipers
Israeli occupation forces are continuing their Bait Hanun siege and have killed a number of civilians across Palestine.
The latest incident, in which grenades were flung at two youths, took place in Saida village north of Tulkarim in the West Bank.
Israeli occupation troops entered the village at 3am on Monday.
Two Palestinian men, Sahir Ajash and Basil Abu Shab, both in their late twenties, died in the attack.
According to witnesses, a grenade was thrown on to a porch where Abu Shab was sleeping. The explosion left half his body blown off from the waist down. Another unexploded grenade was found on the porch.
Ajash apparently fled but was later found dead with bullet wounds to the head, witnesses said.
Residents reported that the Israeli soldiers invaded the village in a number of military vehicles and a bulldozer and demolished part of house in the area where the men's bodies were found.
After the killings, one Israeli military vehicle remained while the rest moved out, and an angry, distraught crowd threw stones at the vehicle. A number of Israeli Jeeps returned and fired at the crowd, before finally withdrawing at about 2pm, witnesses and medical volunteers told Aljazeera.net.
Other incidents
In another incident, two Palestinians, including one child, were killed by Israeli occupation troops in the southern Gaza Strip.
Four-year-old Samar Fujo died early on Monday morning of wounds she sustained after being shot in the head by Israeli snipers ten days previously in the Zurub quarter of the Rafah refugee camp, medial sources said.
Another unidentified Palestinian was also killed when Israeli forces opened fire at a civilian in the same area of the refugee camp, Palestinian security sources said.
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Israeli soldiers will continue until they are "completely convinced that Qassam rockets are no longer being fired towards Israel and that such incidents will not recur in the future"
Israeli military official |
Elsewhere in Gaza late on Sunday night, Israeli helicopter gunships fired several missiles at an agricultural college in Bait Hanun, leading to structural damage, but no injuries.
Israeli bulldozers also razed several square kilometres of civilian farm land, including greenhouses and a chicken farm belonging to Muhammad Zaanin.
The northern Gaza Strip village of 30,000 has been under siege since 30 June, when Israeli forces launched an incursion with the stated aim of creating a security zone after Qassam rockets fired into the Negev town of Sderot by Palestinian resistance fighters claimed their first fatalities.
Since that date, 14 Palestinians have been killed and more than 90 injured and about 2600 sq km of agricultural land cleared.
An Israeli military spokesperson has said the siege has been imposed in self-defence and will continue until they are "completely convinced that Qassam rockets are no longer being fired towards Israel and that such incidents will not recur in the future".
Civilian shot ten times
On Sunday, Palestinian mourners carried the body of Yasir Tantawi during his funeral at the Balata refugee camp in the West Bank city of Nablus. Tantawi, 21, was killed in cold blood on Saturday by Israeli occupation soldiers, witnesses told Aljazeera.net.
According to the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), at approximately 7pm on Saturday 17 July 2004, Israeli soldiers shot and killed the 21-year old in the streets of Balata.
Witnesses report that Tantawi was shot once in the leg by Israeli soldiers and then a further nine times as he lay in the street unable to move.
A Swedish national and fifth-year medical student, named only as Henrik, volunteering with the Palestinian Medical Relief Societies, ran towards Tantawi after he had been shot once and shouted to the Israeli soldiers that he was an international medical volunteer, the ISM revealed.
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Palestinian men are constantly targeted by Israeli snipers
The Israeli soldiers ignored his pleas and shot Tantawi nine more times at point-blank range, with wounds ranging from his chest to his legs. By the time the medical volunteers could reach him he was dead, said an ISM spokesperson.
The reasons behind why Israeli occupation soldiers entered the Balata refugee camp remain unclear. Witnesses say the Israeli military left at approximately 8.30pm the same evening.
In an earlier incident on Friday evening, Bashar Zuraik, a 16-year old also from Balata, was shot in the eye by a rubber-coated steel bullet and is currently being treated in Jerusalem. He will most likely lose his sight, medics say.
In the past month, between 25 and 30 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military in Nablus alone.
While the Israeli forces may claim that they are continuing these daily incursions to find and kill ''wanted'' men, many innocent, unarmed Palestinians are being killed unnecessarily and in cold blood, medics have said.
Al'Jazeera | |
