Israel kills 12 Palestinians in reprisals for deadly ambushes

Nidal al-Mughrabi, Gaza

The new spiral of violence intensified debate between proponents and opponents of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to evacuate settlers from Gaza, now stalled by rightist hard-liners in his own Likud party.

Witnesses said 11 Palestinians, four of them militants, were killed in helicopter missile strikes in Rafah refugee camp, near the area where militants blew up an explosives-packed troop carrier on Wednesday. Five soldiers in the vehicle were killed.

“A helicopter fired missiles at a group of armed militants in two separate incidents at the same spot,” an Israeli military source said.

Israeli troops, combing the area for the soldiers’ remains, later shot dead a 19-year-old Palestinian during a push into Rafah, where 10 homes were demolished. On Tuesday, six Israeli troops died when their armoured vehicle rolled over a landmine during a raid in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood. Militants grabbed the soldiers’ body parts, which were scattered over a wide area.

Israeli forces left Zeitoun early yesterday in an Egyptian-mediated deal under which militants returned the men’s remains. Palestinian medics said 16 people, including militants and

bystanders, were killed and 185 wounded in the two-day siege of the neighbourhood, a stronghold of Islamist militant factions.

“They (the Israelis) have moved their crimes from Zeitoun in Gaza City to Rafah,” Palestinian President Yasser Arafat told reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

In Brussels, the European Commission decided to send 38m in humanitarian aid to impoverished Palestinians in light of the upsurge in violence. The money would provide food aid, water sanitation and improved ambulance services.

The Palestinian ambushes in Zeitoun and Rafah, recalling tactics used by Hizbollah fighters against Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon, dealt the Israeli army its heaviest blow since April 2002, when 13 soldiers were killed in the West Bank.

But Israel’s army chief, General Moshe Yaalon, rejected any comparison with Lebanon, where frequent attacks by Hizbollah created a public groundswell in Israel for a troop withdrawal carried out in 2000 after 22 years of occupation. “We will act as long as there is terror in the Gaza Strip ... and weapons that can threaten (Israeli) communities in the area,” he said.

Polls show most Israelis see Gaza as a liability that should be abandoned.

Mr Sharon vows to pursue his plan despite its defeat in a May 2 Likud vote that reflected fears Palestinian militants would seize on a unilateral pullout as a victory.