GAZA CITY, 10 June 2006 — Israeli forces yesterday killed 10 Palestinians, including a family of seven on the Gaza beach when the navy opened fire, in what Tel Aviv called retaliatory action. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called it a “bloody massacre” and sought international intervention.
Among those killed on the shore were three children, including twins. About 20 Palestinians were injured by the shells, which were fired from Israeli gunboats.
Terrified, crying children who were injured in the attack were rushed to hospitals in Jabaliya and Gaza City. Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh visited them in the hospitals.
The victims had been bathing on the coast on the traditional Muslim day of rest, which was also one of the hottest days of the year.
The Israeli Army said the gunboats were targeting Palestinians who launched rockets against the Jewish state after Israel’s killing of a top fighter who also served as a senior security adviser appointed by the Hamas-led government.
Israeli military chief of staff later ordered an investigation into the beach deaths. “We know it’s not from the air force and not from the navy and we are checking if it was artillery (fire),” said an army spokesman.
The rising death toll stoked tensions as Prime Minister Haniyeh of Hamas made a last-minute appeal to Abbas to abandon a proposed referendum on statehood that would implicitly recognize Israel. Haniyeh called for Abbas to back down for the sake of Palestinian unity after Israel’s killing overnight of Jamal Abu Samhadana, a leader of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC).
An Israeli airstrike on a car killed three Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza, Palestinian security sources said, minutes after PRC gunmen fired rockets into southern Israel in retaliation for Abu Samhadana’s death. Two other cars were hit in Israeli airstrikes. Among those injured was a senior Hamas activist, Palestinian security sources said.
Russia condemned Israel’s assaults on Gaza as an unacceptable and disproportionate use of force.
Abu Samhadana, who topped Israel’s wanted list, was the first Hamas government appointee to be killed by Israel since the group took control of the Palestinian Authority.
The armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said it will resume attacks against Israel after a de-facto one-and-a-half year truce.
Abu Samhadana’s appointment in April to the Interior Ministry, which oversees Palestinian security forces, angered Abbas, who had been struggling to salvage peacemaking with Israel since Hamas assumed power in March.
Abbas is expected to issue a presidential decree today that will call for holding a referendum on the statehood proposal by July 31 because Hamas has refused to back it.
Haniyeh said the referendum had “no legal and constitutional basis.”
The proposed manifesto implicitly recognizes Israel by calling for a Palestinian state on all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
Strong support for the statehood proposal could be seen as a vote of no confidence in the new government, whose election led the West and Israel to cut off funds as a way to force Hamas to recognize Israel and renounce violence.
— Additional input from agencies
