- Title: VARIOUS: ISRAELI FORCES ATTACKS BATTER CHANCES OF NEW INTERNATIONAL PEACE EFFORT
- Date: 9th October 2002
- Summary: (W5) RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (OCTOBER 7, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. MV PALESTINIAN CABINET MINISTER NABIL SHAATH MEETING EUROPEAN UNION POLICY CHIEF JAVIER SOLANA (3 SHOTS) 0.14 (EU) RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (OCTOBER 7, 2002)(REUTERS) 2. MV SOLANA AND SHAATH AFTER MEETING ADDRESSING MEDIA 0.19 4. SOUNDBITE (English) SOLANA SAYING "The situation, t
- Embargoed: 24th October 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: AL-AMAL AND KHAN YOUNIS, KISSUFIM ARMY BASE, GAZA STRIP /RAMALLAH, WEST BANK/JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Reuters ID: LVA4DDN6GQJNG0G0GCD80O2RS4KO
- Story Text: Israeli forces have killed at least 12 Palestinians in
the Gaza Strip, including 10 who died when a helicopter
missile hit a crowd, in a raid that is battering the chances
of a new international peace effort.
Hospital officials in the Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis
said all the dead on Monday (October 7, 2002) were civilians
and that another 80 Palestinians were wounded, including
combatants brought in for treatment still carrying their
assault weapons.
They said a child of about 12 was among those killed in
Israel's helicopter-backed tank incursion when the missile hit
a group of people who had come out of their homes and gathered
outside a mosque thinking the raid was over.
The civilian toll was the highest since a bomb dropped by
an Israeli warplane in late July killed 13 civilians as well
as its target, the military commander of the militant group
Hamas.
The Israeli army said the aim of Monday's incursion was to
hit the "terrorist infrastructure" of Hamas, which has
spearheaded a two-year-old Palestinian uprising for
independence and carried out a wave of suicide bombings.
It said the helicopter launched the missile at a source of
fire directed at tanks withdrawing at the end of the
operation. Palestinians denied any shooting before the missile
struck.
Later, witnesses said a hospital packed with Palestinian
visitors checking on injured loved ones was peppered with
Israeli gunfire and a medic and a teenage boy were wounded.
The army said troops shot towards the hospital after mortar
bombs were fired from its vicinity at a nearby Jewish
settlement.
The deaths threatened to dim the hopes of European Union
(EU) foreign policy chief Javier Solana, in the region on
behalf of the "Quartet" of Middle East peace brokers that
include Russia, the U.N. and the E.U. Solana has been meeting
with officials from both sides during his latest attempt at
shuttle diplomacy.
Solana was due to meet Palestinian President Yasser Arafat
on Monday after talks with Israeli ministers on Sunday.
Earlier he met Palestinian cabinet minister Nabil Shaath.
After the meeting he said he and those he represented
condemned the Israeli incursions.
"The situation, the event, has shocked me for the number
of civilian people killed and wounded. I think that an
important effort is being done by the Palestinian people to
separate from violence. The Quartet has been condemning all
acts of violence against civilians, and therefore this also
has to be condemned in the same manner. I hope that my
presence here is to try to get out of that route. We want the
route of politics and the route of peace," said Solana.
Shaath earlier said Israel was acting with 'criminal
intent'.
U.S. Middle East envoy William Burns is to follow Solana
to the region. Washington has appealed for Israeli restraint
as it seeks to curb Middle East bloodshed while pursuing Arab
support for a possible military strike on Iraq.
Militant groups vowed to avenge the killings of the 12
Palestinians in the area of the Gaza Strip the Israeli
government describes as a Hamas Islamic movement stronghold.
Hamas itself vowed on Monday to continue the fight against
occupation, a position they have taken after each Israeli
attack on Palestinian targets.
"If Iz Eddin Al-Qassam (military wing of Hamas) make a
promise, they keep their promise, and they will respond in
their own time and place," said Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the
spiritual leader of Hamas, which has claimed responsibility
for suicide bombings that have killed dozens of Israelis.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militant offshoot of the
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, also
demanded revenge and called for three days of national
mourning.
Israel says its months-long occupation of West Bank cities
where it had ceded control to Palestinians under interim peace
deals during the 1990s has prevented many suicide attacks, but
Palestinians call it collective punishment.
At least 1,594 Palestinians and 602 Israelis have been
killed since the Palestinian uprising for statehood erupted in
September 2000.
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