GAZA CITY, 9 November 2006 — The holocaust of innocent Palestinians continued as Israeli shells slammed into Gaza homes killing 18 people, mainly women and children as they slept yesterday.
The cold blooded attack, which drew worldwide condemnation, and the deaths of another five Palestinians killed in a pre-dawn raid in occupied West Bank and another two in a Gaza refugee camp, prompted moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to accuse Israel of destroying peace hopes.
While Israeli leaders offered regret for the “tragedy” and aid for the wounded, the international community urged a halt to Gaza operations, which have killed more than 300 Palestinians since a soldier’s capture in late June.
But while Defense Minister Amir Peretz ordered a halt to all artillery fire in the coastal strip pending an inquiry, a senior official said the four-month operation against Gaza fighters, launched after the capture of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, would go on.
“Israeli fire killed 18 people, including women and children,” said Khaled Radi, a Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman. Among the dead were eight children and five women, Palestinian medics said.
Eleven of the dead were from the same family while another 40 people were wounded during the shelling that slammed into a row of five apartment blocks.
“I ran away and saw a second shell strike the houses. A shell fell on people who had run out into the street,” said local resident Ataf Ahmed, 22, following the attack, one day after Israel ended a deadly ground operation in Beit Hanoun.
Another two Palestinians, including a Hamas fighter, were killed in the nearby refugee camp of Jabaliya and five others, including four fighters, were killed in a pre-dawn raid near the flashpoint city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, medics said.
A three-day mourning period was declared in the Palestinian territories, while Abbas and Hamas Premier Ismail Haniyeh expressed a rare show of unity, holding hands on their way to donate blood at a Gaza hospital.
In a joint statement, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Peretz “expressed their regret over the deaths of Palestinian civilians in Beit Hanoun” and “offered the Palestinian Authority urgent humanitarian assistance and immediate medical care for the wounded.”
“Israel does everything to avoid hitting innocent civilian populations during operations, unfortunately tragedies sometimes happen. We are sorry,” Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said.
An army spokeswoman said artillery had been trained on an area used by Palestinian fighters to fire rockets into the Jewish state.
Twelve such projectiles exploded inside Israel over the past 24 hours and some 50 over the past week, she said.
Yesterday’s deaths, coupled to 64 Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip over the previous seven days, bring to more than 80 the number killed in Israeli operations in the territories in seven days.
Top officials of Hamas and moderate Abbas’ Fatah party called for a resumption of suicide attacks in Israel, nearly two years after factions agreed to abide by an informal truce in such bombings inside the Jewish state.
“We urge our mujahedeen (fighters) everywhere to resume martyr operations (suicide attacks) in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and Jaffa and everywhere else,” Hamas’ Nizar Rayan shouted into loudspeakers during protests in Beit Lahiya. Hamas’ exiled policital supremo Khaled Meshaal vowed from his Damascus headquarters that the deaths would be avenged.“We do not denounce simply by words, but by acts.....the heroes of the resistance on Palestinian land and all of our people will respond by acts,” he said.
Israeli police said it placed its forces on alert following the threats.
Abbas condemned Israel’s “terrible massacre” and together with Haniyeh demanded an urgent UN Security Council meeting to “stop these massacres.”
“You (the Israelis) do not want peace at all. You have destroyed all chances of peace and you should bear all the responsibility,” the Palestinian leader told reporters.
The Israeli attack was condemned throughout the world, though its main and most powerful ally the United States remained silent by midday. The UN special envoy for the Middle East, Alvaro de Soto, called on Israel “to call off these and other military operations without delay,” and on the Palestinian side to “cease all attacks against Israeli targets.”
— With input from agencies
