Massacre in Palestine; Israelis Fire On Crowd

Israeli forces fire on Palestinian protesters


Medics say at least 10 killed, 50 wounded at demonstration in Rafah

Khalil Hamra / AP


BREAKING NEWS

MSNBC News Services
Updated: 11:00 a.m. ET May 19, 2004 RAFAH, Gaza Strip - Israeli forces fired tank shells, helicopter missiles and machine-guns Wednesday on a large crowd of Palestinians demonstrating against an Israeli invasion of a neighboring refugee camp, killing at least 10 people, the majority of them children, Palestinian witnesses and medical workers said.

At least 50 people were wounded in the attack, also mostly children, a hospital official said.

However, Israeli media reported the toll was much higher. “Twenty-two Palestinians were killed, among them women and children. More than 50 were wounded,” said the Y-net website of the best-selling newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

The Haaretz newspaper’s website said 23 bodies had been found.

The demonstrators -- apparently almost all civilians -- were marching from the town of Rafah toward the neighboring refugee camp when tanks and helicopters fired at least four shells and four missiles, witnesses and Palestinian security officials said.

Associated Press Television News footage showed a large explosion going off in a crowd of demonstrators, followed by Palestinians carrying the injured -- among them several children -- from the scene.

Israeli helicopters were overhead at the time and tanks were in the area, but it was unclear what caused the explosion.

The Israeli army said it was investigating the incident. "This is a combat zone filled with explosive devices laid in advance by the Palestinians. It is premature to know exactly what happened in Rafah,” Captain Sharon Feingold told Reuters.

Wounded were evacuated by ambulance, private cars and donkey carts to the Rafah hospital, witnesses said. The hospital stairs and floors were drenched in blood as doctors shouted for help and blood donations. Hospital staff treated the wounded on the floors after quickly running out of beds.

'State of emergency'
Israeli forces invaded the Tel Sultan neighborhood of the Rafah refugee camp early Tuesday. Twenty-four Palestinians were killed Tuesday and Wednesday during the army's "Operation Rainbow," aimed at hunting down militants and destroying arms-smuggling tunnels.

"We cannot handle the situation, no hospital in the world can handle the situation," Dr. Moawiya Hassanain, the chief hospital spokesman, said. "I got instruction from President Arafat to mobilize all our teams to Rafah immediately and declare a state of emergency all over Gaza Strip hospitals."

Hassanain said at least 10 people had been killed and 50 wounded. He added that the hospital had received numerous body parts and could not yet give an exact death toll.

Shabtai Gold, a spokesman for Physicians for Human Rights, said the army was preventing ambulances from traveling from nearby Khan Younis to Rafah.

An estimated 3,000 people were participating in the demonstration against the Israeli invasion of the nearby Tel Sultan neighborhood in Rafah refugee camp.

Tuesday sweep
The incursion, launched Tuesday, knocked out power in the refugee camp, home to an estimated 90,000 people, local Palestinian officials said. By Wednesday, they said, water service had been halted as well.


International condemnation mounted against the operation, and the United States said it was asking Israel for “clarification.” The United Nations and European Union demanded an end to the incursion, which Israeli security officials said would last at least a week.

The massive invasion — the largest in the Gaza Strip in years — came less than a week after Palestinian militants killed 13 soldiers — seven in the Rafah area.

Israel said it was targeting armed militants, but Palestinians said many of Tuesday’s casualties were civilians.

Palestinians said the teenage brother and sister were killed by an Israeli sniper as they gathered laundry from their rooftop.

But the military said an initial investigation found no Israeli soldiers had fired in that area at the time of the shootings. The military said the two had apparently been killed by a Palestinian bomb aimed at troops.

Demolitions, arrests
Early Wednesday, the army said it demolished the home of Ibrahim Ahmed, an Islamic Jihad militant it said was responsible for a shooting attack earlier this month that killed a pregnant Israeli woman and her four daughters near a Gaza settlement. Palestinian witnesses said at least three homes were demolished overnight.

Ali Bayomi, a 55-year-old resident of Rafah, said soldiers disguised as Hamas militants had arrested two of his cousins and were using the men as human shields as they conducted searches of homes. The army did not comment.

Salwa Abu Jazar, a 33-year-old mother of four, said the noise from combat helicopters and shooting kept her family up much of the night.

“There is no water, no electricity, and it is very hard to move inside the house using candles because snipers in the building next door will shoot you,” Abu Jazar said.

The army said it had shot and hit two armed men overnight in Rafah. Palestinian residents said one man had been hit in the head and stomach, the other in the leg. They said the intense fighting was making it hard for ambulances to evacuate the dead and wounded.

In all, 19 Palestinians were killed Tuesday by Israeli fire — 10 in two separate missile strikes and nine by machine gun fire, said Dr. Moawiya Hassanain, a senior official for the Palestinian Health Ministry. A 20th man was killed while handling explosives.



'Planned massacre'

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat denounced the incursion as a “planned massacre.” “What is happening in Rafah is an operation to destroy and to transfer the local Palestinian population, and this must not be accepted, not by the Palestinians, nor the Arabs, nor by the international community,” an angry Arafat told reporters at his West Bank compound.
Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a petition by 46 Rafah residents against demolition of their homes, giving the army the right to tear down buildings that could be used for attacking troops.
Paul Patin, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, said the United States had asked Israel for “clarification” regarding the Rafah operations. President Bush described the violence on Tuesday as “troubling” but said Israel had the right to defend itself from terrorism.
Mohammed Dahlan, a former chief of Palestinian security in Gaza who is considered to have pro-Western views, said the United States had the power to stop the incursion — but would not in an election year.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

 

More on what the Plestinians were protesting:


Israel seeks mass Gaza surrender


Israeli forces have already knocked down some 100 houses and shops in Rafah

Israeli troops on a raid in southern Gaza have called for a mass surrender of male residents in part of the Rafah refugee camp.
Reports say army loudspeakers told males aged 16 or over in the Tel Sultan area to gather at a local school or risk demolition of their family homes.

Officials are quoted as saying they were after militants, not all males.

Troops stormed the camp on Tuesday, killing 20 people and confining residents without electrity or water.

Thousands of residents are reported to have emerged from their homes in response to the call, and walked to the school carrying white flags ahead of Israeli tanks.

Firing by the Israeli troops continued as the residents gave themselves up, family members said, quoted by Reuters news agency.

Tuesday violence was among the bloodiest in three years of Israeli-Palestinian violence - and reports speak of another four deaths on Wednesday, including a 14-year-old boy.

The army says it is punishing militants and destroying arms-smuggling tunnels. Several houses belonging to the families of militant suspects have been demolished.

International condemnation has mounted against Israel and the US has asked for clarification about its actions.

Teenagers killed

Israel says it only shot at militants on the first day of "Operation Rainbow" although the Palestinian dead included a boy, 13, and his older sister.

Witnesses said they had been killed by an Israeli sniper as they gathered laundry from a rooftop - but the military suggested they were killed by a Palestinian bomb aimed at troops.

RAFAH REFUGEE CAMP

Population: 90,000
Largest of several camps near city of Rafah, southern Gaza
Established in 1949 to house 41,000 refugees from newly-founded state of Israel
Expanded in 1967 when Gaza occupied by Israel
About 1,800 houses demolished by Israeli army since 2000


Palestinian medics said a number of the dead from two missile strikes on Tuesday were civilians.

The number of wounded had risen to 50 on Wednesday, exceeding the capacity of Rafah's hospital.

Palestinian resident said ambulances were having difficulty evacuating casualties to hospitals due to the intense fighting.

A 55-year-old resident of Rafah, quoted by Associated Press, said soldiers used two of his cousins as human shields during house-to-house searches.

'New pullout plan'

The massive invasion into Rafah camp - one of the largest and bloodiest ever in Gaza - comes a week after Palestinian militants killed 13 Israeli soldiers in several ambushes. Seven died near Rafah.

The army says it demolished the home of Ibrahim Ahmed, an Islamic Jihad militant blamed for killing a pregnant Israeli settler and her four daughters on 2 May.

This is an operation to destroy the local population, and this must not be accepted, not by the Palestinians, the Arabs, or the international community

Yasser Arafat
But military officials went back on their initially-declared plan to systematically destroy whole rows of houses along a patrol road where troops are frequently attacked by Palestinian militants.

Before the raid, thousands of residents - themselves refugees when Israel was founded in 1949 - fled their homes fearing they were earmarked for demolition.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says he plans to pull troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip, but he hit an obstacle last month when his own party voted overwhelmingly against withdrawal.

Government sources say Mr Sharon will present a reworked plan for a phased pullout to cabinet soon.

The intense activity in Rafah camp is thought to part of a tactic to avoid making withdrawal from Gaza seem like a defeat for Israeli forces.

Stranded

Residents of Rafah camp, one of the most deprived and long-suffering Palestinian communities, have described terrifying hours spent hiding in their houses since Operation Rainbow began on Tuesday.


Rafah residents loaded up their possessions and fled the camp on Monday
"There is no water, no electricity, and it is very hard to move inside the house using candles, because snipers in the building next door will shoot you," said 33-year-old mother of four Salwa Abu Jazar, quoted by AP.

Saleem Katib said his elderly, sick father has been stuck with other congregants at the mosque for more than 24 hours because of a total curfew.

Another resident said human waste was spilling into the streets after the Israelis destroyed a sewage pumping station generator.

"I saw an Israeli bulldozer starting to demolish a building as people were still inside. No notice was given," Hassan Abu Yusef told AFP news agency.

Condemnation

United Nations representatives in New York have been discussing a proposed resolution to condemn the demolition of houses in Rafah and call for an immediate halt to military action.

But the measure, which reportedly had broad Security Council support, was met with a counter-proposal by the US, which usually blocks documents singling out Israeli actions for criticism.

Britain has proposed compromise amendments, and a final text may be presented for voting on Wednesday.

The European Union has strongly condemned Israel's conduct in Rafah, while US President George W Bush said he was "troubled", but stressed Israel's need for self-defence.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Israel was carrying out a "planned massacre" of Palestinians.

"What is happening is an operation to destroy the local Palestinian population, and this must not be accepted, not by the Palestinians, nor the Arabs, nor by the international community," he said.

Israeli forces have killed two militants in the West Bank in recent hours, one in Jenin and another in Nablus

 

One sided? The ISRAELI PRESS is saying there were more killed than the Palestinian press. The hospital workers are saying these were kids...

There were between 10 and 23 people killed, over 50 wounded, at least 28 of which are considered 'critical', and these were civilian protestors, even according to Iraeli press reports.

And this isn't a massacre!?!?!?

Put it this way; there were more killed and considerably more seriously wounded than on St. Valentine's Day.

And what the hell does Hamas have to do with firing on protesting civilians?


I am getting increasingly disgusted by responses to things like this and the POW situation.

 

Uh, sorry, but the IDF is admitting to firing rockets " at empty areas near the crowd" and admits to firing tank shells at an 'abandoned building' next to the crowd. It's only contention at this point was that they didn't directly fire at the crowd.


Palestinians say Israel fired on crowd; Israel vigorously denies it
Wednesday, May 19, 2004 Posted: 12:34 PM EDT (1634 GMT)

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Palestinians blame an Israeli helicopter strike for the deaths of 18 people among 200 marching in a protest of Israel's crackdown in Gaza, but the Israeli military vigorously denied its helicopter fired on the crowd.

At least 18 Palestinians were killed and 55 wounded in the explosion, and many of the casualties were children, Palestinian hospital sources said.

An Israeli Apache helicopter was seen overhead, but the Israel Defense Forces said the helicopter did not target or hit the crowd.

The IDF said in a statement that the helicopter fired one missile at an empty nearby area to disperse the crowd, which it said included gunmen, and fired flares, which explode in mid-air.

The IDF statement also said it fired tank shells at an abandoned building -- a maneuver that may have led to the deaths.

"It is possible that the causalities were a result of the tank fire on the abandoned structure," the statement said. "The details of the incident continue to be investigated."

The Israeli military is investigating to determine if there were explosives in the building hit by the tank shells.

The IDF said the road on which the Palestinians were marching -- the main road leading from central Rafah to the neighborhood of Tel Sultan -- is lined with explosives placed there by Palestinians.

"Today's incident in Rafah is a very grave incident and the IDF expresses deep sorrow over the loss of civilian lives," the statement said. "At no point in this incident was intentional fire opened in the direction of civilians.

A top Israeli spokesman also expressed regrets for the deaths and insisted Israel has no policy of firing at protesters.

"I assure you one thing: there are no rules of engagement in the IDF or among security forces that allow firing direct or high-trajectory fire into a crowd. So if there was, it was against the rules or by mistake," Ra'anan Gissin, senior adviser to the Israeli prime minister, told CNN.

He expressed "my deep regrets on behalf of the Israeli government" for the loss of innocent lives, "regardless of how they were killed."

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei, on a visit to Spain, called for Israel to remove its forces from southern Gaza. The White House issued a statement urging "all parties to exercise maximum restraint."

Earlier Wednesday, four Palestinians were killed and ten wounded in a military operation at Rafah, Palestinian sources said. Israel had no immediate word on that operation.

Israeli commanders said they moved into Rafah after receiving intelligence that arms that would spell a major escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were waiting across the border in Egypt to be smuggled into Gaza.

Israel says militants use underground tunnels to escape into Egypt and smuggle in weapons back in and the Israeli military is trying to shut them down.

Israel demolished buildings in the Rafah area including some homes, prompting international condemnation and a call from the United States not to destroy homes of the innocent. Israel said the homes destroyed were being used by militants to launch attacks and served as entrance points to the tunnels.

The United Nations estimates that 1,600 Palestinians have been left homeless and 100 Palestinian houses have been destroyed since the weekend.

No Israeli soldiers have died in the current operation.

On Tuesday, Palestinian sources said 20 Palestinians were killed in Israeli operations. Palestinian sources identified three as the members of the militant Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant off-shoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, and said the rest were civilians.

But an IDF officer said 20 militants were killed, and IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon said nine of those killed were militants wanted by Israel.

Palestinian witnesses said two children were among the 20, but Israel said the two children were killed by a explosive device intended to kill Israeli troops.

Amid the fighting, thousands of Rafah residents have been without water or electricity. Israeli commanders said they were trying to restore services and clear the way for ambulances to enter the area.

CNN's Matthew Chance and Waffa Mynayyer and CNN Radio's Ninette Sosa contributed to this report.


So you're suggesting it's biased to assume that the Israelis, at the very least, opening up at targets immediately next to the crowd, and the explosions and deaths that resulted are linked? You think it's more objective to say it's all up in the air?

 

God.


On a similar note, did you know that, contrary to the US reports, the Amrican Fallujah assault has been confirmed by Reuters, and local hospitals to have claimed the lives of 600-800 civilians, mostly women and children?

I saw Gen, Greenstock on the BBC last night ( Greenstock was, until recently, the British envoy to Iraq; essentially their equivalent of Bremer, his close friend) admitting this, and despite his repeated and strong statements of support for the wear, for Bremer, and for US command, admitted that the Fllujah actions were probably liiegal, should result in war crimes investigations, and are proably almost as damaging to the battle for hearts and minds as the POW scandal.

He said, while defending the US command in several respects ( for example, he said he never saw US commanders acting with disregard for the Geneva Convention, etc. This is not an anti-US/war critic.) that ( and he specifically names some exceptions) his one serious complaint of US commanders was they they often seemed too prone to attack, too concerned with demonstrating force and power, and not considerate enough of the long term implications to their actions.

He said Fallujah was an example of this; that many told them, and the Brits officially lodged protests against, the wide spread attack on Fallujah, saying that such an attack on a largely civilian area could not fail to result in the kinds of civilian casulties we have seen as a result.

British officials have also condemned the US for being very slow to record civilian casualties, contrary to the Geneva Convention, because of the feared effect it would have on morale back home, and have issued formal complaints. Greenstock admitted that this had been the case, although he said that US officials have made a recent effort to do the right thing in this regard.

BTW, the civilian casualties in the war have exceeded 11, 000.

 

No, it's an important story. IMO, it clearly deserves it's own thread.

 

Saw it on CNN, not the video of the firing, but of the children being carried from the attack...looks bad. They have it as their 3rd story right now, behind the Generals' testifiying, and the 9-11 commission's interviews of both former mayors.