GAZA CITY, 29 July 2006 — After a bloody two-day mayhem that killed 29 Palestinians, the deadliest concentration of violence since Israel’s incursion began over a month ago, Israeli troops withdrew from northern Gaza early yesterday.
The Israeli Army killed five Palestinians on Thursday, including a 75-year-old woman and a 12-year-old boy, who was killed by Israeli gunfire as he stood on the roof of his house at the edge of the Jabaliya camp, residents and hospital officials said.
The world’s attention remained focused on Lebanon, however, where Israeli forces have been fighting Hezbollah fighters since July 12.
Israel’s Army and air force have been attacking the Gaza Strip to try to stop fighters from firing rockets at southern Israel and to secure the release of a captured Israeli soldier. Early yesterday, Islamic Jihad said it launched a rocket at the southern Israeli town of Zikim. The strike wounded two Israeli children who were hit by shrapnel, Israeli rescue services said. The Israeli operation in Gaza began after Hamas-linked fighters killed two soldiers and captured a third, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, in a cross-border raid on a military outpost on June 25. Israeli troops have killed more than 100 Palestinians since its Gaza incursion began.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said after Friday prayers that his government and other Palestinian factions have been working closely with the Egyptians in the past few hours to end the Israeli offensive.
“I hope that the exit of Israeli forces (from Gaza) today is the beginning of an Israeli commitment to end the aggression the Palestinians have been under,” he said.
A Hamas political leader said yesterday that Hamas would not release Shalit until Israel frees Palestinian prisoners first, and added that the group expected to conduct negotiations for a prisoner swap side-by-side with Hezbollah.
“Tying (the fate of) the soldier we have and the soldiers with Hezbollah supports the interests of the two people, especially on the issue of prisoners. All choices are open before us,” Osama Al-Muzaini said in an interview on a Hamas website.
Meanwhile, in the West Bank, the Israeli Army arrested 22 Palestinians suspected of involvement in militant activity, and a Palestinian youth and a Jewish settler were killed, the army and police said.
After the Israeli pullout from northern Gaza, residents streamed outside before dawn to inspect the damage, and rescue workers found the body of a Palestinian killed in the fighting. Fighters began removing mines and explosives they had planted to stop the Israelis.
In southern Gaza, Israeli aircraft hit a metal workshop in the city of Khan Younis early yesterday, wounding nine people, including two children, hospital officials said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in Algiers that the situation in the Palestinian areas and Lebanon was only likely to get worse after world leaders failed to agree to an immediate cease-fire at a summit in Rome.
— With input from agencies
