- Title: ISRAEL/GAZA: Seven Palestinians killed in Israeli operations on Gaza
- Date: 24th October 2006
- Summary: STATIONARY TANKS TANKS MOVING GATE BETWEEN GAZA AND ISRAEL OPENED; TANK GOES THROUGH GATE; GATE CLOSED
- Embargoed: 8th November 2006 12:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Defence / Military
- Reuters ID: LVACZIMDBXU5ZKVOHN3V9YAZZHRD
- Story Text: Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh condemned Israeli attacks on Beit Hanoun on the day of Eid El-Fitr that marks the end of the Ramadan on Monday (October 23).
"We condemn, and express the Palestinian anger, the ugly massacre committed on the morning of the blessed Eid El-Fitr. We call on the sons of the Arabic and Islamic nations to take responsibility and stand with the PAlestinian people and here I would like to especially address the Arab countries," Haniyeh told reporters at his Gaza office.
Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians, including at least three gunmen, and wounded about 20 people in fighting in the Gaza Strip on Monday, Palestinian officials said.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said troops on an operation in the northern part of the territory to curb Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel, shot at least 10 gunmen in exchanges of fire. She said she did not know their condition.
Local residents said Israeli fire initially killed three gunmen paying a condolence call at a mourning tent set up by a family of a militant shot dead by Israeli soldiers in an earlier incident. Israeli media reports said troops ambushed the men.
Believing the shooting was coming from the home of neighbours locked in a feud with the grieving family, other militants in the tent began firing at the house, townspeople said.
Realising their mistake, they then directed their fire towards Israeli forces and a gunbattle ensued, the residents said.
When the smoke cleared, seven Palestinians were dead and some 20 wounded, a Palestinian Health Ministry official said, blaming Israeli gunfire for all the casualties and basing his account on information from ambulance crews at the scene.
One of the dead, Atar Shinbari, was a senior commander of the Popular Resistance Committees, a militant group that frequently fires rockets into southern Israel.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, of the governing Hamas Islamist group, condemned the killings in Gaza, on Eid al-Fitr, one of the two biggest Muslim celebrations.
"These threats to invade comes as part of the overall escalation and the war which the Palestinian people are enduring but here I assure you that the Palestinian people will not be frightened by these threats and the people of Gaza Strip are steadfast against the occupation and in the face of the rising Israeli escalation," he told reporters.
Israeli troops were deploying into and out of Gaza throughout the day as they continued an operation that aims to curb Palestinian makeshift rocket fire into Israel, the army says.
Palestinians marched in Gaza city streets as part of a funeral procession for one of seven Palestinians killed earlier in northern Gaza, the rest are expected to be buried on Tuesday (October 24).
Israel, which pulled troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip last year, launched a ground offensive in the territory in June after militants, tunnelling under the border, seized an Israeli soldier.
At least 21 Palestinians have been killed in internal violence in the Gaza Strip this month, part of a power struggle between Hamas movement and President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction.
More than 260 Palestinians, half of them civilians, have been killed since the Israeli operation began, according to residents and hospital officials.
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