- Title: GAZA: ISRAEL KILLS SEVEN PALESTINIANS IN GAZA STRIKE.
- Date: 13th May 2004
- Summary: (W8) ZEITOUN NEIGHBOURHOOD, GAZA CITY, GAZA (MAY 13, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. LV: GAZA CITY, AUDIO OF SHOOTING AND SHELLING 0.17 2. GV: BURNT CAR IN STREET WHERE ARMY WAS LOCATED 0.23 3. MV: MEN STANDING IN STREET SAYING 'GOD IS GREAT' 0.29 4. GV: BODY OF MAN FOUND UNDER RUBBLE OF DESTROYED HOUSE 0.43 5. GV/GV/PAN: MEDIC EVACUATING SECOND BODY FOUND BENEATH RUBBLE, BODY TAKEN AWAY (3 SHOTS) 1.05 6. GV: VARIOUS OF PEOPLE GOING THROUGH RUBBLE (3 SHOTS) 1.27 7. GV/MV: MAN LOOKING AT DAMAGED BUILD ING; VARIOUS OF DAMAGED BUILDING (4 SHOTS) 1.48 8. GV:EXTERIOR OF BUILDING DESTROYED BY ARMY 1.52 9. GV/PAN: WOMAN CARRYING BABY AND FOLLOWED BY HER CHILDREN WALKING IN STREET 2.03 (W1) RAFAH, GAZA STRIP (MAY 13, 2004)(REUTERS) 10. GV/PAN: AMBULANCES AT SITE OF AIRSTRIKE 2.11 11. MV: WOUNDED BEING TREATED AT SITE 2.25 12. MV: WOUNDED MAN SITTING ON GROUND AND SAYING THAT HE IS LOOKING FOR HIS SON 2.42 13. CU/PAN: BOY WALKING ALONG, CRYING 2.50 14. MV: BODY COVERED IN SHEET ON THE GROUND 3.02 15. MCU: UNCONSCIOUS BOY RECEIVING FIRST AID AT SITE 3.22 (W1) RAFAH, GAZA (MAY 13, 2004) (REUTERS) 16. TV/PAN/ZOOM IN: AMBULANCE ARRIVING AT HOSPITAL, WOUNDED BEING TAKEN FROM AMBULANCE;. VARIOUS OF WOUNDED BROUGHT INTO HOSPITAL ON STRETCHERS 3.34 17. TV/PAN/G/PAN/MV: INJURED AND BODIES BROUGHT INTO HOSPITAL 4.24 18. MV/PAN: WRAPPED BODIES BROUGHT TO MORGUE (2 SHOTS) 4.51 19. V: AMBULANCES OUTSIDE HOSPITALS 4.58 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 28th May 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ZEITOUN NEIGHBORHOOD, GAZA CITY, RAFAH
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Reuters ID: LVA5ZSUYTPT1RV0FESZ2AFHVWMSU
- Story Text: Israel kills seven Palestinians in Gaza strike.
Israel killed seven Palestinians in a missile strike
in southern Gaza on Thursday (May 13) after back-to-back
ambushes claimed the lives of 11 soldiers in the worst blow
to the Middle East's mightiest army in two years.
Witnesses said two missiles hit a crowd in the Rafah
refugee camp near the spot where militants blew up an
explosives-packed Israeli troop carrier on Wednesday (May
12), killing five soldiers.
An Israeli military source said the missiles were fired
at a group of militants who tried to plant bombs to attack
Israeli soldiers in Rafah.
Six Israeli servicemen died on Tuesday (May 11) when
their armoured vehicle hit a landmine during a raid in a
militant stronghold in Gaza City.
Israeli forces pulled out of the Gaza neighbourhood
early on Thursday in what Palestinian sources said was an
Egyptian-mediated deal under which militants returned
soldiers' remains. The remains were handed over to the
Israelis early on Thursday, a Palestinian security official
said.
The Rafah ambush occurred as Israeli forces were
blasting their way into buildings in Gaza City in the north
of the territory in a hunt for body parts of their six
comrades.
Helicopters later fired missiles into Rafah's refugee
camp abutting the "no man's land" strip along the border
with Egypt where the military vehicle was operating. The
deadliest of the strikes early on Thursday left dismembered
bodies.
Palestinian witnesses said Israeli tanks also pushed
into the edges of the camp, sending dozens of fearful
residents fleeing for fear of an assault.
Islamic Jihad, one of the main groups behind suicide
bombings against Israelis, claimed responsibility for the
Rafah ambush.
Fighters for Islamic Jihad, involved in both assaults,
said by telephone from Rafah that they used an anti-tank
rocket and a large bomb laid in the vehicle's path to
destroy it.
An army spokesman said the vehicle was part of a convoy
on a mission to "neutralise" tunnels used to smuggle
weapons to Gaza across the border from Egypt, and was
unloading some of its explosives at the time it was struck.
An Islamic Jihad statement said the ambush was to
avenge Israel's killings of some of its leaders as well as
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder of the largest militant
movement Hamas.
Together the militant attacks marked the worst blow to
the Israeli army since April 2002, when 13 soldiers were
killed in an ambush during an assault on a refugee camp in
the West Bank town of Jenin.
Rafah has been scarred by many battles between the army
and militants involved in a 3 1/2-year-old Palestinian
uprising launched in territories Israel took in the 1967
Middle East war.
Earlier on in the day, Palestinian security sources
said militants had agreed to turn over the remains of the
six soldiers killed in Gaza City if Israeli forces withdrew
first. They initially demanded Israel free Palestinian
prisoners too.
Just after midnight (2100 GMT), Israeli forces pulled
out out of Gaza City's Zeitoun neighbourhood, signalling
that a deal had been worked out between the two sides.
Palestinian security officials later handed over the
soldiers' remains to Israel at a checkpoint north of Gaza,
after militants had surrendered them to Egyptian mediators.
Israel had said troops would stay put until the bodies
were recovered for a proper burial according to Jewish
tradition and repeated it would do no deals with
"terrorists". The army would not comment on the handover of
the remains but acknowledged it had completed its mission
to retrieve them.
The army said it raided Zeitoun to destroy weapons
workshops used by militants. Palestinian medics said 16
people, including militants and bystanders, were killed and
185 were wounded during the two-day siege.
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