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Israeli Troops Kill 10 Palestinian Gunmen

Posted on: Saturday, 2 October 2004, 06:00 CDT

JEBALIYA REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip - Israeli troops killed 10 Palestinian gunmen Saturday, including two Hamas militants in a helicopter airstrike, as the military expanded one of its largest offensives against Palestinian militants in four years of fighting.

At least 50 Palestinians and five Israelis have been killed in four days of violence. In a show of defiance, Hamas' secretive military wing Izzedine al-Qassam held a first-ever news conference in Jebaliya - the refugee camp at the center of Israel's offensive- vowing to resist the Israeli assault and threatening to fire rockets at the Israeli city of Ashkelon, 10 miles north of Gaza.

About 2,000 soldiers in hundreds of armored vehicles were patrolling a five-mile stretch of northern Gaza to counter militants firing homemade rockets into Israel. The Israeli offensive, "Days of Penitence," was launched after a Hamas rocket killed two Israeli preschoolers in a town near Gaza on Wednesday.

Both sides appeared to be bracing for a long fight, with masked Palestinian gunmen fortifying positions in Jabaliya, the largest Palestinain refugee camp and one of the most crowded places on earth, with 106,000 people living in half a square mile.

The gunmen at the press conference said 15 armed Hamas men have been killed in recent days. Six Palestinians, including children, were wounded in Gaza on Saturday by Israeli gunfire.

"All our cells are spread out throughout Jebaliya, as part of our plan to kick out the enemy," one of the Hamas said. "We will teach the enemy a lesson he will not forget."

The gunmen said they were working to expand the range of their rockets and threatened to hit Ashkelon, which lies 10 miles north of the Gaza border has been out of the reach of the homemake projectiles.

The fighters stood behind a weapons display - including rocket-propelled grenade launchers, assault rifles, grenades, mortar shells and homemade anti-tank shells - as they spoke to journalists. The press conference in Jebaliyah, which is adjacent to Gaza City, was ended abruptly when the sound of an Israeli unmanned surveillance aircraft was heard overhead.

Several hours after the press conference, an Israeli helicopter fired a missile at a car driving in eastern Gaza City, killing two members of Izzedine al-Qassam and wounding four bystanders, a Hamas official said. The official identified the men as Mehdi Mushtaha and Khaled Amreet.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia made a veiled appeal to militant groups to stop rocket attacks.

"We call on the factions to think about the higher national interest and not give Israel excuses to continue the aggression against our people in Gaza," Qureia said in the West Bank town of Ramallah after an emergency Cabinet meeting.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat referred to Israel campaign as a "monstrous, criminal, inhumane attack on our people."

The Israeli military, meanwhile, sent more forces into northern Gaza. The area controlled by Israel included the towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, and parts of the Jebaliya camp.

Near the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom in central Gaza, about 200 schoolchildren threw rocks at soldiers, drawing army fire. Two teens, ages 14 and 16, were wounded, hospital officials said.

Four Palestinians were wounded in Jebaliya, including a 12-year-old boy who was in critical condition with a head injury.

An Israeli helicopter targeted gunmen northeast of Jebaliya in the early hours Saturday, the army said. Palestinian medical workers said three militants from the Islamic Jihad group were killed.

Hours later, Israeli troops killed four Palestinians carrying rifles and explosives cut through the Gaza border fence and approached the Israeli communal farm of Nahal Oz, said Lt. Col. Ari Hoze, the army commander in the area.

In other violence, a 60-year-old Palestinian man was shot dead near his home in the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza, Palestinian hospital officials said.

A commercial strike ordered by the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and militant groups was widely observed in Gaza on Saturday, but compliance was only partial in the West Bank. Al Aqsa has ties to Arafat's Fatah movement. Gaza radio stations broadcast warnings by Al Aqsa that shopkeepers ignoring the strike would be punished.

Amid the Israeli crackdown, militants still managed to fire another homemade Qassam rocket into the Israeli town of Sderot on Friday. The rocket caused no injuries.

The rocket attacks threaten to complicate Sharon's plan to withdraw from Gaza next year. Sharon wants to pull all Israeli troops and civilians out of Gaza as part of a wider program to unilaterally separate Israelis and Palestinians.

Sharon's opponents, including critics within his own party, warn the withdrawal will encourage further militant attacks.

At the United Nations, Israeli opposition leader Shimon Peres said Friday the government's timetable for the Gaza withdrawal remains unchanged, despite the fighting. In Washington, the State Department called on Israel to temper its military response to the rocket attack. Israel has a right to defend itself but should limit itself to using "proportional force," deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said.

Jordan on Saturday condemned Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip and urged the international community to intercede to put an end to Palestinian-Israeli violence. Jordanian government spokeswoman Asma Khader said Israel's "massacres" in Gaza will only further destabilize the region.

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