GAZA CITY, 3 May 2003 — Hamas promised bloody retribution yesterday for an Israeli raid that left one of its leaders and 11 other people dead, as thousands gathered for their funeral in Gaza City.
Around 50,000 Palestinians poured out of Gaza City’s mosques after Friday prayers straight into a huge funeral procession for the Palestinians who were killed by an army raid on one of the teeming city’s neighborhoods Thursday. The soldiers got their target, a senior military leader of Hamas, but killed another 11 Palestinians in the process, mainly civilians.
The pitched battle lasted 15 hours and the timing of Israel’s huge operation in the Gaza Strip — a day after the road map for peace was published — prompted Washington to issue a rare call for restraint on its ally.
“We deeply regret the civilian casualties that occurred today in Gaza and we urge the Israeli government to take all appropriate precautions to prevent the death or injury of innocent civilians and damage to civilian and humanitarian infrastructures,” said a US State Department spokeswoman.
But it appeared too late to quell tempers that flared up in Gaza following the raid. Crowds of demonstrators, including more than 1,000 gun-toting fighters, rejected new Palestinian Premier Mahmoud Abbas and the road map, whose release followed his swearing-in this week. The spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, whose armed wing claimed joint responsibility for the latest bombing on Wednesday, was at the funeral and vowed his organization would not heed any cease-fire calls.
The Ezzedin Al-Qassam Brigades, whose bomber left three fatal victims in Tel Aviv, issued a statement warning against any attempt to disarm them or implement the road map.
“This is a clear message to everybody — our weapons are our blood. We will cut any hand that tries to take these weapons away from us,” the group said, responding to Abbas’ pledge to rid the Palestinian territories of “unauthorized weapons”.
“To our eyes, anybody who cooperates with the road map is collaborating with Israel’s criminal occupation,” the group also warned.
Publication of the road map, jointly drafted by a diplomatic quartet consisting of the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States, was seen as a potential breakthrough in attempts to bring the deadly cycle of violence to an end.
The plan calls for a cessation of violence. As part of a first phase, it demands the Israeli Army withdraw to pre-intifada lines and for the new Palestinian administration to rein in militant groups. But both sides want the other to take the first step.
Low-level violence continued in the occupied territories early yesterday, when Israeli armor raided the northern West Bank city of Tulkarm and its adjacent refugee camp, Palestinian security sources said.
The army also dynamited the houses of two Palestinian fighters killed earlier this week in a foiled attack on a wildcat settlement near the city of Nablus, sources on both sides said.
