OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 5 March 2004 — Israeli forces raided the southern Gaza town of Rafah yesterday, killing a 14-year-old boy, bulldozing houses and damaging the water and electricity networks.
The Israeli Army said it was searching for tunnels Palestinian fighters use to smuggle weapons from Egypt.
Hospital officials said nine Palestinians were wounded.
Palestinian security sources said Mohammed Othman was killed when he was caught up in the raid while he was on his way to school. Three other people were also wounded, they said.
An Israeli military source said there were probably casualties from “crossfire during heavy exchanges” that erupted when troops backed by tanks raided Rafah.
Witnesses said Israeli troops knocked down 10 houses in the raid on Rafah, a frequent flashpoint during more than three years of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Palestinians also accused the Israelis of killing a activist who died in an explosion at his home in the Rafah camp, but the army said it was not responsible for the death of Awni Kulab, a field commander of the Popular Resistance Committees.
Thousands of people marched at his funeral, calling for reprisals. Thousands more joined a ceremony in Gaza City for three Hamas activists who were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday.
“Sooner or later the Israelis will pay for the crimes of their government,” blared the message from loudspeakers. Hamas has vowed to avenge the attack.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat accused Israel of “committing new massacres” in Gaza ahead of a plan to withdraw from settlements there by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has pledged unilateral “disengagement steps” if peace negotiations remain stalled.
Palestinians would welcome the departure of settlers, but fear that if Israel quits Gaza it will simultaneously strengthen its grip on parts of the West Bank, which was also seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. “They want to leave Gaza and before they leave, they want to commit massacres,” Arafat told reporters. Dozens of people have been killed in Rafah and hundreds of Palestinian homes have been destroyed.
Yesterday, Israel told Jewish settlers to leave nine West Bank outposts or be evicted, in what political sources called a calculated gesture by Sharon before his US visit.
Settlers vowed a last-minute appeal to Israel’s highest court to block any attempt to remove them from unauthorized outposts that have long been slated for removal under the peace road map.
The settlers said they would not go quietly even if the High Court upheld eviction orders first issued two months ago.
