GAZA CITY, 26 August 2007 — Eight Palestinians were shot dead yesterday by Israeli soldiers in an upsurge in violence while two Palestinians launched a daring attack and infiltrated Israel before being gunned down.
The Israeli Army said one of its soldiers was also wounded in the shootout with the Palestinian raiders who attacked an Israeli liaison office near the Erez border crossing with Gaza with firearms and grenades.
Soldiers from Israel’s elite Golani regiment moved in as reinforcement and killed the two, he added.
“With the help of the morning fog, two armed Palestinians managed to infiltrate Saturday into Israeli territory in the area of the Erez and Netiv Haassarah kibbutzim,” Tal Lev-Ram, an Israeli officer, told AFP.
Communities neighboring the collective farming villages were put on alert and roads were closed to traffic. It was only the second Palestinian operation of its kind since June last year when Gilad Shalit, a young Israeli soldier, was captured by Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip.
Three armed resistance factions, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah, Al-Naser Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, and the National Resistance Brigades, the armed wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) have claimed responsibility for the latest “joint attack on Israeli territory.” A joint statement identified the dead as Khader Aokal, 22, a fighter from the Popular Resistance Committees, and Mohammed Saker, 22, from the DFLP.
The Popular Resistance Committees said one of its fighters acted as a watchman for the two others, but did not cross the border.
The groups boasted that they “managed to infiltrate Israeli territory and reach the Netiv Haassarah settlement where its two martyred fighters fought for three hours with the Israeli Army.” The same groups also claimed responsibility for a joint operation in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday evening in which two Palestinian fighters were killed by Israeli troops.
The Gaza Strip is now run by the Islamist group Hamas, which captured the territory in June from forces loyal to the secular Fatah faction of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The incidents marked a surge in clashes with the Israeli Army in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In the northern West Bank town of Jenin yesterday, Israeli forces killed one Islamic Jihad fighter wanted by Israel and wounded two others, including one seriously, a Palestinian security official said.
A security official later reported that the seriously wounded fighter died of his wounds.
Two bystanders also sustained bullet wounds in the operation, the official added. An Israeli Army spokeswoman said troops shot three armed men in a car, without saying whether they killed any of them. A 13-year-old Arab Israeli boy and a fighter from Islamic Jihad were shot dead late Friday when Israeli troops traded fire with fighters in the northern West Bank village of Saida, a Palestinian security source said.
— With input from agencies
