GAZA CITY, 8 October — Israelis killed 14 Palestinians and wounded some 100 others in a raid on the Gaza Strip yesterday.
Palestinian hospital officials said all the dead were civilians, including 10 people killed by a missile fired from a helicopter into a crowd that had gathered near a mosque.
It was the highest civilian death toll in Gaza since July 23 when a bomb dropped by an Israeli plane killed 13 civilians as well as a Hamas military commander.
The raid, condemned by Palestinians as a massacre, occurred during a visit by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana to push an initiative on behalf of an international “quartet” of Middle East peace brokers.
The United States declared itself “deeply troubled” by Israel’s raids and demanded an investigation. “We’re deeply troubled by the reports of Israeli actions in Gaza over the weekend that resulted in the deaths and wounding of many Palestinian civilians,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
Bloody Israeli forays have increased in the Gaza Strip since Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon secured almost total control of the West Bank, invaded in June after a spate of bombings.
Israeli tanks stormed into Khan Yunis with their cannons and machine guns blazing at around 1 a.m. yesterday (2300 GMT Sunday), while accompanying helicopter gunships fired missiles and machine guns.
Israeli public radio said that bulldozers took part in the operation which included 40 tanks.
Around four hours later, the Israeli forces returned to their base in nearby Gane Tal settlement, witnesses said, while clashes continued on the edge of the settlement. Hospital officials said eight people were wounded when a tank shell and machine gun fire hit a hospital after the raid. Four were initially hurt when machine gun fire from a nearby Israeli Army watch tower hit the building’s administrative area and morgue, and a short time later four more were hurt when a tank shell hit the building, officials said.
The Israeli fire hit the town’s Nasser hospital as it struggled to cope with the 40 already wounded from the Israeli raid.
Palestinian groups vowed to avenge the massacre.
“The killing of civilians must be punished by the killing of civilians,” said Mahmoud Al-Zahar, a senior member of Hamas.
“For every crime there is a punishment and the response for today’s massacre will come in the shape of escalating resistance and strikes everywhere in the land of Palestine,” Zahar told Reuters.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, an offshoot of the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, also demanded revenge and called for three days of national mourning.
Hundreds of university students from Gaza City’s Islamic University marched in the streets and called for armed units of all Palestinian factions to coordinate revenge attacks. Around 15,000 people turned out in Khan Yunis for the funerals of the initial 12 people killed, even as two died in hospital of their injuries.
“The Palestinian Authority condemns this ugly massacre which is part of preparations to reoccupy the Gaza Strip,” Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said.
In the West Bank, Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian who tried to circumvent a roadblock near the city of Qalqilya, witnesses and hospital officials said.
Also yesterday, in an apparently unrelated incident, the head of the Palestinian riot police, Abu Lihya, was shot dead in Gaza City by masked gunmen, police said.
Palestinian police demanded in a statement that the Hamas hand over the killers, who were avenging the killing of a Hamas activist last year by Palestinian police.
Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantissi denied the group was involved in the killing.
Imad Akel, the brother of one of three activists killed last October when police broke up a rally for Osama Bin Laden declared responsibility for the killing.
Hours later, two members of Hamas were killed in clashes with Palestinian police in central Gaza. Mahmud Al-Borno, 27, and Mohammed Hejazi, 30, were shot dead and another 15 people were injured when the clashes erupted after Hamas supporters started stoning a police patrol in the center of the city.
