MIDDLE EAST: Apologising for the deaths of an estimated 10 Palestinian civilians during a demonstration, who were apparently hit by a tank shell, Israel nevertheless vowed last night to continue its military operations in Gaza's Rafah area, deeming them essential to national security.
Noting that many of the dead and the dozens of wounded were women and schoolchildren, the Palestinian Authority demanded international protection for Gaza and UN sanctions against Israel, accusing it of carrying out a war crime. The Palestinians wanted to get back to the negotiating table, said the Palestinian Authority's Prime Minister, Mr Ahmed Korei, "but these crimes committed daily against our people. . . show there exists no desire for peace on the part of this Israeli government."
Prof John Dugard, the UN's human rights envoy for the West Bank and Gaza, said the UN should consider imposing an arms embargo on Israel. Prof Dugard also said Israeli actions amounted to war crimes and were a collective punishment which violated both humanitarian law and international human rights law.
Israeli Arab Knesset members, speaking in the parliament when news of the incident first broke, asserted that troops had deliberately fired into the protest march, and called for the prosecution of the heads of the Israeli defence establishment.
The incident demonstrated that "you don't have to be German to behave like the Nazis," declared Mr Talab a-Sanaa, a bedouin Knesset member.
But the Israeli army's chief of staff, Gen Moshe Ya'alon, denied suggestions that the Palestinian marchers, who were walking towards the main centre of Israeli military operations in early afternoon, had been deliberately targeted. "We don't fire on civilians," he said. An initial investigation indicated that one of four tank shells, "fired at an abandoned building" in the vicinity of the demonstrators, may have caused the deaths. "Obviously I'm sorry for any harming of civilians," he added. The general confirmed that a helicopter gunship had earlier fired a single missile to try and deter the demonstrators, and said that this missile fell, as intended, on open ground, causing no injuries.
The Israeli Defence Minister, Mr Shaul Mofaz, said that Israel was being forced by Palestinian terrorists to fight "an incredibly complex war in the heart of a civilian population." He was sorry that civilians had been harmed, he said, and there would be further investigation. But the Gaza-Egypt border area was "the main site of weapons smuggling, endangering Israeli soldiers and civilians, so our operations will continue as long as is necessary." He claimed that attempts were being made to smuggle in Katyusha rockets, Sagger anti-tank missiles, and anti-aircraft missiles.
The military activity in the Rafah area, codenamed "Operation Rainbow," is the heaviest launched in years, with a Palestinian death toll of over 30 in two days, and follows the killings of seven soldiers in Rafah last week.
Confusion over the death toll and the precise cause of the tragedy continued throughout the day, with Palestinian officials speaking of more than 20 fatalities, the Red Cross listing 10 and Gen Ya'alon stating that four of that number had been killed earlier in the day. Indeed, five Palestinians, mostly armed but including a 14-year-old boy, were reported killed in an incident before the demonstration set out.