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13 Palestinians Killed in Gaza Fighting

Posted on: Wednesday, 11 February 2004, 06:00 CST

Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen battled in two areas of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing at least 13 Palestinians and wounding more than 50 in one of the bloodiest days in Gaza in months.

The fiercest fighting took place in the Shajaiyeh neighborhood of Gaza City. Twelve people, including the son of a prominent Palestinian leader and a senior Hamas activist, were killed and more than 40 were wounded, Palestinian doctors said.

In a separate raid in the Rafah area along the Gaza-Egypt border, troops killed a Palestinian man as they searched for tunnels used for arms smuggling. The forces demolished three houses and razed citrus and olive groves.

The fighting in Gaza City erupted before dawn and continued for several hours. The army and Palestinian residents said the troops pulled out by early afternoon.

During the fighting, dozens of boys stood in the streets watching the battle as gunfire whizzed by. Masked gunmen took up positions in front of a building and ordered civilians out of the area. At one point, a gunman picked up a young schoolboy by his backpack and whisked him out of the battle zone.

Later in the day, the army blew up the house of a Hamas militant who had been wounded and sent tanks into the neighborhood.

Nine of the 12 people killed were Palestinian militants, Palestinian sources said.

They included Mohammed Hills, 18, the son of Ahmed Hills, the top leader of Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction in Gaza, and senior Hamas activist Hani Abu Sakhalin. Residents said Abu Sakhalin had survived a previous Israeli attempt to kill him, was also killed in the fighting.

At least nine of the wounded were in critical condition, doctors said. The wounded included at least three boys who were hit as they watched the battle from side streets, witnesses and doctors said.

When Abu Sakhalin's death was announced at a Gaza hospital, Hamas militants in camouflage uniforms waiting outside fired guns in the air and yelled "God is great" before jumping in a car to return to the fighting, witnesses said.

The military said the fighting broke out after anti-tank missiles were fired at Israeli tanks, which were part of an operation to search for militants who fired rockets at nearby Jewish settlements.

The army described the scene as a "true battle zone," saying the firing was "hysterical." There were no reports of Israeli casualties.

The fighting was the deadliest in Gaza since 14 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike in October.

In the other battle, Israeli forces, including more than 10 tanks and several armored bulldozers, moved into the Rafah refugee camp on the Gaza-Egypt border, residents said. Five Palestinians were injured in exchanges of fire, they said.

The military said soldiers were looking for tunnels used by Palestinians to smuggle in weapons.

Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said the Israeli operations "undermine" efforts to work out a meeting between the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said he will take unilateral steps if talks on a U.S.-backed peace plan remain bogged down. The emerging plan would include imposing a temporary boundary in the West Bank and a pullout from much of Gaza.

On Tuesday, the chief of Israeli military intelligence said evacuation of Israeli settlements in Gaza could be interpreted by Palestinian militants as a victory for terrorism.

Maj. Gen. Aharon Zeevi-Farkash also told the top parliamentary committee that a pullout could put great pressure on militants to halt "terrorist activities," the army said later. Zeevi-Farkash briefed the lawmakers about the Gaza plan but did not express an opinion.

The boundary would be based on the barrier Israel is building in the West Bank. The Israelis say they need the barrier to keep suicide bombers out, but Palestinians charge that the project is a massive land grab to prevent them from forming a state.

Last week, Sharon indicated he would remove up to 17 of the 20 settlements in the Gaza Strip, shocking hardline colleagues from his Likud Party and threatening stability of his center-right coalition government.

As part of such a withdrawal, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz plans to keep troops positioned in the Gush Katif block of settlements in Gaza, the Haaretz newspaper reported Wednesday.

Gush Katif could be used to continue to carry out army operations against militants and as a "bargaining chip" in future talks with the Palestinians, Mofaz believes, the daily said.

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