Israeli soldiers continue killing spree
 

Israeli soldiers continue killing spree

Aljazeera
19 July 2004

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exer...F7E-4DB4-B211-
CC771B047FCC.htm

Israeli occupation forces are continuing their Bait Hanun siege
and have killed a number of civilians across the occupied
Palestinian territories.

Israeli occupation troops, backed by armour, invaded the northern
West Bank region of Tulkarim early on Monday, killing at least two
Palestinians and destroying a number of houses.

Local sources told Aljazeera.net that as many as 40 Israeli
military vehicles, backed by helicopter gunships, raided the
villages of Allar and Saida as well as the Tulkarim refugee camp
amid intensive firing and sounds of explosions.

The invading forces reportedly raided and badly ravaged a local
charity which the Israelis claim is associated with a resistance
group.

Locals told Aljazeera television that Israeli troops imposed a
strict curfew on the village and were barring ambulances and
paramedics from reaching the wounded.

The latest incident, in which grenades were flung, took place in
Saida, north of Tulkarim.

Two Palestinians, Sahir Ajash and Basil Abu Shab, both in their
late twenties, died in the attack.

According to witnesses, a grenade was thrown on to a porch where
Abu Shab was sleeping. The explosion ripped apart his body.
Another unexploded grenade was found on the porch.

Ajash apparently fled but was later found dead with bullet wounds
to the head, witnesses said.

Residents reported that the Israeli soldiers invaded the
village in a number of military vehicles and a bulldozer and
demolished part of house in the area where the men's bodies were
found.

Other incidents

In another incident, two Palestinians, including a child, were
killed by Israeli occupation troops in the southern Gaza Strip.

Four-year-old Samar Fujo died early on Monday morning of wounds
she sustained 10 days ago after being shot in the head by Israeli
snipers in the Zurub quarter of the Rafah refugee camp, medical
sources said.

Another unidentified Palestinian was also killed when Israeli
forces opened fire at a civilian in the same area of the refugee
camp, Palestinian security sources said.

Israeli soldiers will continue until they are "completely
convinced that Qassam rockets are no longer being fired towards
Israel and that such incidents will not recur in the future"

Elsewhere in Gaza late on Sunday night, Israeli helicopter
gunships fired several missiles at an agricultural college in Bait
Hanun, leading to structural damage, but no injuries.

Israeli bulldozers also razed several square kilometres of
civilian farm land, including greenhouses and a chicken farm
belonging to Muhammad Zaanin.

The northern Gaza Strip village of 30,000 people has been under
siege since 30 June, when Israeli forces launched an incursion
with the stated aim of creating a security zone after Qassam
rockets fired into the Negev town of Sderot by Palestinian
resistance fighters claimed their first fatalities.

Since that date, 14 Palestinians have been killed and more than 90
injured and about 2600 sq km of agricultural land cleared.

An Israeli military spokesperson has said the siege has been
imposed in self-defence and will continue until they are
"completely convinced that Qassam rockets are no longer being
fired towards Israel and that such incidents will not recur in the
future".

Civilian shot 10 times

On Sunday, Palestinian mourners carried the body of Yasir Tantawi
during his funeral at the Balata refugee camp in the West Bank
city of Nablus. Tantawi, 21, was killed in cold blood on Saturday
by Israeli soldiers, witnesses told Aljazeera.net.

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) said Israeli soldiers
shot and killed Tantawi in the streets of Balata around 7pm on
Saturday

Witnesses report that Tantawi was shot once in the leg and then a
further nine times as he lay in the street unable to move.

A Swedish national and fifth-year medical student, named only as
Henrik, volunteering with the Palestinian Medical Relief
Societies, ran towards Tantawi after he had been shot once and
shouted to the Israeli soldiers that he was an international
medical volunteer, the ISM said.

The Israeli soldiers ignored his pleas and shot Tantawi nine more
times at point-blank range, with wounds ranging from his chest to
his legs. By the time the medical volunteers could reach him he
was dead, said an ISM spokesperson.

The reasons behind why Israeli soldiers entered the Balata refugee
camp remain unclear. Witnesses say the Israeli military left the
same evening.

In an earlier incident on Friday evening, Bashar Zuraik, a
16-year-old also from Balata, was shot in the eye by a
rubber-coated steel bullet and is currently being treated in
Jerusalem.

In the past month, between 25 and 30 Palestinians have been killed
by the Israeli military in Nablus alone.