JERUSALEM, 25 May 2004 — Israeli tanks opened fire yesterday on a Palestinian funeral procession in the Gaza Strip.
Thousands of Rafah residents accompanying the bodies of 16 Palestinians had to duck under Israeli machine-gun fire as the army withdrew from the Tal Al-Sultan and Brazil neighborhoods of the southern border town.
As the biggest funeral procession to ever march through the streets of Rafah headed toward the municipal stadium, an Israeli tank directed a sustained burst of heavy machine-gun fire on the crowd, witnesses said.
As the mourners turned right after the Al-Awda Mosque toward the Brazil refugee camp, the sound of gunfire from a tank nearby sent thousands dashing into side-streets for cover.
Two Palestinians were injured in the shooting, one a 20-year-old who was in serious condition after being hit in the eye, according to sources at Rafah Hospital.
The mourners had to re-route their procession but, under the supervision of the Palestinian security services, were finally able to reach the stadium where an estimated 10,000 were gathered for the funeral service.
Residents venturing out in the Tal Sultan and Brazil districts begged for water as they confronted demolished homes, flattened greenhouses and torn-up streets flowing with raw sewage after Israeli tanks rumbled out.
The army also lifted a blockade that had cut Rafah off from the rest of the Gaza Strip for nearly a week, saying it was easing conditions for the beleaguered population. But it kept a small force in the Kishta neighborhood of the crowded camp.
Tal Al-Sultan and Brazil were the main targets of Israel’s largest Gaza raid in years, launched after 13 soldiers were killed in ambushes.
The UN relief agency UNRWA said Israeli forces had demolished some 180 homes since the siege began. But Israel’s army chief Moshe Yaalon said only 12 homes had been destroyed.
The Israeli offensive has drawn strong international criticism. But a visiting US Democratic legislator yesterday defended the Israeli offensive and praised Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to withdraw from Gaza.
Rep. Tom Lantos of California, the ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, said “there would have been no incursion” if the Palestinian Authority and the Egyptian government had taken steps to prevent weapons from being smuggled into Gaza through tunnels under the Egyptian border.
