10 killed as Israel attacks refugee camp in Gaza

A UN official has said eight of the 10 Palestinians killed during an Israeli raid on a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip yesterday morning were unarmed civilians.

Christer Nordahl, of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, said two of the eight were UN employees working at a nearby school.

However, a UN spokesman said UNRWA is conducting an investigation into the deaths and has not yet reached any conclusions.

Israel has denied any civilian casualties and said at least five of the dead were members of the militant Hamas group.

The Palestinians killed in Bureij refugee camp raid were buried yesterday afternoon as crowds of angry men around the cemetery vowed to avenge their deaths.

“We are committed to the continuation of jihad and martyr operations until our land is liberated,” members of the hardline group Hamas shouted through loudspeakers.

Martyrs’ operations is the term used by Palestinian groups for suicide attacks. Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopters raided the refugee camp in a pre-dawn move.

Palestinian witnesses said Israeli soldiers, along with 25 tanks and several helicopters entered the camp.

Men called through mosque loudspeakers for people to come out and battle the Israeli soldiers.

Palestinian gunmen returned fire and a helicopter fired a missile into a street, killing at least three people.

One tank shell just missed a Palestinian home, wounding five people, medics said. A second home belonging to a Palestinian militant was blown up by Israeli forces, witnesses said.

A doctor at the local hospital said nine Palestinians died and six were wounded, including the woman who later died, in the attack. The Israeli army said most of those killed were gunmen.

The high death toll and the timing of the assault, during the Muslim Eid el-Fitr holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, enraged Palestinians and tens of thousands attended a funeral for the 10 victims.

The raid also came just a day after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network was in Palestinian-ruled areas of the Gaza Strip and in Lebanon.

Palestinians and Lebanon denied Sharon’s charge.