GAZA CITY, 5 August 2006 — Four more Palestinians, including a 3-day-old baby girl, were killed yesterday morning raising the death toll to 12 during the ongoing military operation in Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip, witnesses and medical sources said.
Medical sources identified the killed as Ezz Abu Jazar, 25, Ahmad Shaheen, 20, Esam Al-Basheeti, 24, and baby girl Shahed Sheikh Al-Edd.
The baby died when she slipped from the hands of her mother and crashed onto a rough ground while the mother was escaping an artillery fire from Al-Sawarka area in eastern Rafah city. Hundreds of families escaped from the area to avoid the heavy indiscriminate air and ground shelling, witnesses and medical sources said.
In a leaflet the Hamas movement said Abu Jazar and Al-Basheeti were members of Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the movement. The statement added that Abu Jazar was killed when an Israeli tank shot a shell during confrontation with the Israeli troops.
Meanwhile, the UN expressed alarm that the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza was being sidelined by Israel’s ongoing offensive in Lebanon.
The latest deaths occurred on the second day of an Israeli incursion launched early on Thursday, and which involves several dozen tanks and bulldozers with air support.
“We are concerned that with international attention focusing on Lebanon, the tragedy in Gaza is being forgotten,” the UN said in a statement.
“The United Nations humanitarian agencies working in the occupied Palestinian territory are deeply alarmed by the impact continuing violence is having on civilians and civilian infrastructure in Gaza,” it added.
At least 163 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have died in the offensive, according to an AFP count, and much of the densely packed territory’s infrastructure has been destroyed, including its one power plant.
The UN said that according to its figures, 175 Palestinians have been killed, including approximately 40 children and eight women. More than 620 Palestinians have been wounded, the statement said.
On the Israeli side, the “All parties to the conflict are obliged to protect civilians during hostilities,” the UN statement said.
Israeli sources said that the army arrested 12 Palestinians during the military operation in Rafah.
— With input from agencies
