Israeli tanks kill four in Palestinians in Gaza

Four Palestinians, including a mother and two of her sons, were killed early today when Israeli tank shells landed in a Bedouin encampment near an Israeli settlement, residents and doctors said.

Four others were wounded, including a four-year-old boy, said doctors at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where the casualties were taken.

The acting director of the hospital, Dr Nafez Shalach, charged that Israeli forces prevented ambulances from reaching the wounded for more than 40 minutes.

The shelling came after Israeli tanks entered Palestinian-controlled territory and Israeli gunboats patrolled the Gaza shoreline for the second night in a row. Tanks blocked off the main north-south road in Gaza, witnesses said.

Red Crescent rescue service workers said Israeli tank shells fell on two houses. The dead were identified as Rawaida Hajien, 50, two of her sons, Ashraf, 23, and Mehad, 17, and a cousin, Mohammed, 20. Hajien’s four-year-old son, Khaled, was critically wounded, and three other people were hurt, doctors said.

Arriving at the hospital, a relative, Fares Hajien, 30, saw the bodies and broke into tears. “It’s a brutal crime,” he said. “This is the Israeli step to implement the so-called Gaza plan.”

Under an agreement announced on August 18, Palestinian security is to take control of Gaza and prevent terror attacks as Israeli forces pull back. However, the plan has not been carried out.

Palestinians charge that Israel is stalling, but the Israelis counter that the Palestinians have taken no steps to stop attacks.

Israeli gunboats fired at objects off the Gaza coast thought to be smuggled weapons, and a mortar shell fired by Palestinians hit a house in a Jewish settlement in Gaza.