Three more Palestinians were killed during an Israeli raid into the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanun today, Palestinian security officials said. Last night seven Palestinians were killed in an air strike on Gaza city.
Ahmed Abu Qumsum (13) was shot in the chest, and Ali al-Mashafi (36) was shot in the head near his home. Earlier, Imad al-Hindi (21) was shot as crowds of Palestinian youths rushed to the entrance of Beit Hanun to throw stones at Israeli tanks and armoured personnel carriers rumbling into the town.
Al-Mashafi was a member of the Israeli-Palestinian security liaison committee. He was not armed when shot, officials said.
Israel killed a senior Hamas leader, one of his deputies and five other Palestinians last night in an air strike hours after President George Bush vowed to renew efforts to end Israeli-Palestinian violence.
More than 40 Palestinian civilians were wounded in Gaza City's densely populated Zeitoun neighborhood in the first such attack since the start of the US-led war in Iraq three weeks ago, hospital officials said.
Hamas, a militant Islamic group that has killed dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings during a 30-month-old Palestinian uprising for statehood, vowed to avenge the deaths of Mr Sa'ad al-Arabeed, a senior commander of its Izz el-Deen al-Qassam armed wing, and deputy Mr Ashraf al-Halabi.
They were in a car struck by two of three missiles which witnesses said were fired by an Israeli F-16 warplane.
A bystander was killed by the missile that missed the vehicle and also wounded about seven other people in Zeitoun, a neighborhood known as a Hamas stronghold, witnesses said.
The Israeli army made no official comment on the air raid. Israeli security sources said Arabeed had been involved in dozens of attacks on Israelis since Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed interim peace deals in the 1990s.
AFP