Israeli troops kill three Palestinians in Gaza push

THREE Palestinians, including two children, were killed by Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip as troops pressed on with a massive nine-day-old incursion in the north, Palestinian medics and the Israeli army said.

Palestinian doctors identified the two slain children as Sliman Abu Ful and Raed Abu Zeid, both 14, and said their bodies had been ripped apart by what appeared to be a tank shell.

The Israeli army insisted the two people fired on had been “preparing to fire an improvised rocket”.

“The pair were hit by a missile fired by a helicopter gunship,” a spokesperson said.

“A drone flying over the area filmed two figures who were putting a rocket launcher in a firing position at an angle of 45 degrees,” a second spokesman said.

“The two figures moved away and there was a flash. A first attempt at firing apparently failed.

“The two figures then came back and we did not allow them to go ahead with a second attempt.”

But witnesses at the scene told AFP that the teenagers had been rummaging through the ruins of a local youth club destroyed by armoured bulldozers two days before. They said they were hit by a tank shell and that no fire or flash had been seen at the scene.

“We were all playing in the ruins of the club because there is nothing else to do, the school is closed. We found water pipes in the wreckage and a tank started firing at us,” said Abdullah Zeidan, 14. “I got scared and moved back, but Raed and Sliman stood there, carrying pipes and the tank fired two shells. The second one tore their bodies to pieces,” said another playmate Karam Abu Naji, also 14.

In a separate incident, a Palestinian gunman was killed by Israeli troops in he southern Gaza Strip, according to an Israeli military source.

“Two explosive devices were found next to the body, which were meant for our forces,” an Israeli source said, adding that the incident had taken place in the area of Khan Yunis, near the security fence separating the Gaza Strip from Israel.

Meanwhile, a young Palestinian wounded by Israeli army gunfire earlier this week in Jabaliya died of his injuries, hospital sources said. Mohammed Abu Seif, 16, had been shot in the neck on October 1 and died at Gaza’s Shifa hospital.

The deaths brought to 92 the number of Palestinians killed since Israeli tanks first poured into the Gaza Strip on September 28. Five Israelis have also been killed in the territory during the incursion.

Despite growing US and international pressure, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the army to press ahead with the operation to the halt rocket attacks ahead of a planned pull-out from Gaza next year. Israel sent 200 tanks and army vehicles into north Gaza to curb Hamas rocket attacks.