GAZA, 19 August — Israeli troops killed a Palestinian during an incursion into a Palestinian-ruled area of the Gaza Strip overnight, the latest in a series of raids which have fueled over 10 months of Middle East violence.
Up to 5,000 mourners, some of them masked and firing shots in the air, turned out later yesterday for the funeral of Abdel Rahman Abu Bakra in the Khan Younis refugee camp, chanting for revenge.
In another incident, two Palestinian babies were badly wounded after Israeli soldiers opened fire on taxis in the West Bank and Gaza Strip yesterday. Seven-month-old Nurredin Oda was traveling with her mother when they came under fire from Israeli soldiers at a roadblock some 15 km (nine miles) to the west of Nablus, in the West Bank, hospital sources said.
A three-month-old baby was also badly wounded in a similar incident in the south of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian hospital and security sources said. The baby, Farres Abu Mokhimir, was hit in the head as he was traveling in the car with his parents at Khan Younis by shots fired from a nearby Israeli military position, the sources added.
At leas two Israeli missiles slammed into a Palestinian security post in Gaza late yesterday. Three Palestinians were wounded in the strike.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s senior diplomatic adviser, Avi Pazner, said Israel would carry out more raids into Palestinian autonomous zones. Referring to the Khan Yunis raid, he said this was a “legitimate policy of self-defense.” “This policy will continue,” he vowed.
In Cairo, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said international observers would not succeed in quelling violence between Israel and the Palestinians without a real intention to instill peace. “I fear that the observers will be afraid that an Israeli will hit one of them, or a Palestinian will hit one of them,” Mubarak told reporters. “Each country sends them at its own expense.” “Without a real intention to stop the killing, neither observers nor anyone else will be able to do anything,” he said. “There must be a sure intention to bring peace to the region.”
Israeli public radio announced that the agriculture minister will meet with his Palestinian counterpart today in a bid to end a row over the distribution of food in the region. Palestinian Agriculture Minister Hikmat Zaid on Thursday announced an embargo on a wide list of agricultural products from Israel in response to a 10-month blockade on Palestinian movement into Israel.
