GAZA CITY, 10 October 2004 — Five Palestinians including a Hamas militant were killed by Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip yesterday, taking the death toll from a huge Israeli offensive in the area to more than 100.
In the latest violence, the armed wing of Hamas said Abdelaluf Nabar, 25, was struck by a rocket fired from an Israeli combat helicopter on the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, the focus of the punishing Israeli military operation launched 11 days ago.
But Israel denied it had launched an airstrike on the area, with an army spokesman saying soldiers had fired on a group of Palestinians who were about to fire an anti-tank rocket, causing the weapon to explode.
Nabar’s death brought to 103 the number of Palestinians killed during Israel’s “Days of Penitence” operation, which the army says is aimed at halting militant rocket attacks from Gaza on Israeli soil.
Another four Palestinians were killed earlier in the day, including two militants from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed offshoot of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement.
They were killed at Beit Hanoun, in the north of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources said. Israeli security forces confirmed there had been a clash with Palestinian activists in the area.
In another incident, two members of a Palestinian security force were killed and two wounded by Israeli forces at Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip, hospital sources said. The Israeli Army told AFP that an air raid had targeted a group of armed men seen in the sector.
