Gaza blast hits Israeli army post
Paramedics reported at least 30 casualties and Arab TV stations said at least five Israeli soldiers were killed.
The attackers apparently dug a tunnel to reach the outpost and detonate the explosive. The blast went off at the Gush Katif junction, near a bloc of Jewish settlements.
In a call to The Associated Press, Hamas and the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a group with ties to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, claimed responsibility.
During the evacuation of the dead and wounded, ambulances came under constant fire from militants, said a spokesman for the Magen David Adom rescue service. He said there were at least 30 casualties.
The attack was a blow to the Israeli army in Gaza, where it lost 13 troops in ambushes last month.
Violence has surged in Gaza since February, when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced a plan to quit the desert territory, which many Israelis see as a costly liability. The cabinet approved his initiative in principle on June 6.
Scores of Palestinians were killed in a huge raid into Gaza last month following the earlier deaths of the Israeli soldiers.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces yesterday ended their deadliest raid in the West Bank for months after killing the commander of the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade.
Israeli security sources said Nayef Abu Sharkh, 38, was responsible for numerous attempts to dispatch suicide bombers.
A senior Fatah official said Abu Sharkh had been at odds with Mr Arafat over empowering new leaders and ending corruption.
Furious Palestinians called for swift revenge yesterday as they paid their respects to seven militants, including Abu Sharkh and two other senior commanders, shot dead during Saturday’s raids in Nablus.
About 30,000 people packed the streets chanting demands for revenge in the heart of Israel.
Mr Sharon meanwhile hailed the army’s so-called Operation Full Court Press as an “impressive success in the fight against terrorism”.
All schools and shops were closed in Nablus as the bodies of the seven began their journey to the city’s Martyrs Cemetery.
Scores of masked gunmen from all the main Palestinian armed factions fired volleys into the air amid a sea of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and al-Aqsa flags.
Fadi al-Bahti, a local leader of Islamic Jihad, and Jaffer al-Masri, a commander of Hamas’s armed wing, were also being buried.
Many of the mourners went to the site of a hideout in Nablus’s Old City where the seven were killed in a shoot-out.
Israeli forces withdrew from Nablus and a curfew was lifted at dawn yesterday although the funerals were brought forward slightly for fear that the soldiers could soon return.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei condemned the killings which, he said, signified “that Israel is continuing its plan of killings and assassinations of all the freedom fighters”.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
