Israel Gaza raid marks Palestinian anniversary
Four Palestinians two gunmen and two boys, ages 12 and 15 were killed in the military strike.
The operation, one of the largest in recent months, came two days before the first Israeli-Palestinian summit since 2000, and a week ahead of talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Bush on a new peace plan.
The Secretary of State Colin Powell, who met separately with Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas over the weekend, yesterday said that both sides needed to compromise to get going on the "road map" to Mideast peace.
Powell made it clear that Sharon was causing much of the problem and said he hoped the prime minister could work something out with his Palestinian counterpart.
The incursion targeted the Palestinian town of Beit Hanoun and came in response to rocket fire from Gaza into Israel, the army said.
During the raid, troops demolished five houses of Hamas militants and exchanged fire with Palestinian gunmen.
Doctors said that for four hours, troops prevented ambulances from evacuating the dead and wounded. Among those left unattended was a 12-year-old boy, Mohammed Zaaneen, who had been shot in the head and was eventually carried out of the combat zone to an ambulance waiting on the outskirts of town.
He died en route to a hospital, doctors said.
In the past, troops have kept ambulances from areas of fighting. An army commander, Colonel Yoel Strik, would only say he was unaware of the boy's death.
A Beit Hanoun resident, Marwan Shabat, 55, said the incursion was a continuation of "Al Naqba," or "catastrophe," the Palestinians'' name for the events of the 1948 Mideast war when about 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced out of their homes.
"The Naqba for the past 55 years has been the same, but if the occupiers think they can uproot us from our town, they are mistaken," said Shabat, a school teacher.
He said troops broke into his home, smashed furniture and beat three of his sons during the raid.
Hours later, about 15,000 people filled the streets of Gaza City and hundreds turned out in the West Bank city of Ramallah to mark the "Naqba."
In Gaza City, demonstrators fired rifles into the air and wore T-shirts with the face of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, whose image also appeared on many street corners.
At noon, a three-minute siren rang out in parts of the West Bank and Gaza. Motorists stopped their cars. Marchers held up their fingers in a V-for-victory sign.
Later, the wail of Muslim prayer calls and the clang of church bells filled the air as Arafat's annual Naqba speech blared over loudspeakers. Many of the demonstrators carried banners with the names of former hometowns.
"Many of us still have the keys to our former homes," said Abdullah Kahtib, 65, who came to the rally with his grandson Mohammed, 11. "One day we will return. If not me, he will."
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