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14 Palestinians Killed in Clashes in Gaza

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

Israeli troops rode tanks into the Gaza Strip on Wednesday searching for Islamic militants firing rockets at nearby Jewish settlements, and the ensuing battle left at least 14 Palestinians dead and more than 50 wounded.

It was one of the bloodiest days in Gaza in months, with the fiercest fighting occurring 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.

Later Wednesday, Hamas, which has carried out dozens of suicide bombings in Israel over the past three years, vowed retaliation. The group's militant wing called on all of its cells to carry out "huge martyrdom operations," saying "all options are open."

In a separate raid in the Rafah area along the Gaza-Egypt border, troops killed two Palestinians, including a militant, as they searched for arms-smuggling tunnels. 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 young men stood in the streets watching 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 was killed and sent tanks into the neighborhood.

The dead Palestinians included 10 militants, Palestinian sources said.

They included Mohammed Hilles, 18, the son of Ahmed Hilles, the top leader of Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction in Gaza, and senior Hamas activist Hani Abu Skhaila.

Hamas said Abu Skhaila survived two previous Israeli attempts to kill him, including a June missile strike on his car in which he suffered shrapnel wounds.

Hamas, which called Abu Skhaila "the great brave hero," said he participated in several deadly attacks on Israelis, including a suicide bombing last month that killed four people at a border checkpoint.

At least nine of the wounded were in critical condition, doctors said. The wounded included at least three young bystanders, 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 its tanks.

"There was great resistance by armed cells in a very densely populated area," said Col. Yoel Strick, a division commander in the Gaza Strip.

There were no reports of Israeli casualties.

Troops shot and killed gunmen in a house, Strick said. Later, soldiers searching the house found an explosives belt of the type worn by suicide bombers and other weapons. Soldiers arrested the family living in the house and blew up the building.

After the fighting subsided, three small rockets were fired into Israel, causing no damage, Israel Army radio reported.

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, residents said. Five Palestinians were wounded in gun battles, they said.

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 includes imposing a temporary boundary in the West Bank and pulling out from much of Gaza, areas captured during the 1967 Mideast war.

On Tuesday, Israel's military intelligence chief 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.

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.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia rejected claims made on Israeli television that a cement company owned by his family provided concrete for Israeli settlements and the Israeli West Bank barrier.

"At base this is a report that is not even worth the ink it was written with," Qureia said Wednesday in Rome, where he was to meet Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.

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