Three killed as Israeli missile hits crowd

Three people were killed and 95 wounded today when a missile fired from an Israeli helicopter exploded in a crowd in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, doctors said.

Earlier, two people died in a hospital from wounds suffered when Israeli tanks and helicopters fired at houses, doctors said.

Witnesses said people were gathering in the streets to walk to mosques for morning prayers after gunmen exchanged fire with invading Israeli forces. Then the helicopter fired a missile that exploded among the people, killing and wounding dozens.

After midnight, around 40 Israeli tanks, accompanied by attack helicopters, moved into Khan Younis, residents said. Witnesses said the Israelis fired machine guns, shells and missiles at buildings on the main street, wounding at least 10 people. Doctors said two people died in the hospital from their wounds.

Residents said people came out into the streets at around 4.30am local time (3.30am Irish time) when they heard the tanks pulling out, but two Israeli helicopters remained overhead, and one of them fired the missile.

Abed Ouda, 29, said he was parking his car when the missile struck. “I heard a huge explosion and people were wounded and bleeding on the ground in front of my car,” he said.

Dr Mohammed Abu Dalal of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis appealed for more doctors and supplies to help treat the large numbers of casualties.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the missile explosion. Israeli military sources said the army operation in Khan Younis was limited in nature and was not a large-scale invasion.

Hosni Zourab, the Palestinian governor or Khan Younis, denounced the missile strike, calling it “another part of the series of massacres and aggression against our people that are being committed by the Israeli occupation”.

The incursion followed a Palestinian mortar attack on a Jewish settlement. Previous Israeli forays into Palestinian territory in Gaza have been aimed at destroying factories where the Israelis say mortars and rockets are made, as well as arresting terror suspects.

Yesterday, two Palestinian men were shot dead in the northern West Bank, one in a gun battle with Israeli troops, the other allegedly shot by a Jewish settler in an olive grove.

Palestinians accused Jewish settlers of killing Hani Yousef, 22, as he was harvesting olives near his village, Aqraba. Another Palestinian farmer was shot and wounded by the settlers, who came from the nearby settlement of Itamar, according to the Palestinian mayor, Ghaled Mayadme.

Israeli police spokesman Gil Kleiman said the farmer’s death was being investigated, but no arrests had been made. The farmer had been shot in the back, he said.

In the Jenin Refugee Camp, also in the northern West Bank, Israeli troops killed Samer Jalamneh, a 22-year-old member of the radical Islamic Jihad movement, after he opened fire at them with an assault rifle, witnesses and the military said.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, speaking from the remnants of his Ramallah compound, accused the Israeli army of covering up settlers’ actions.

“The army is protecting their daily crimes against Palestinian residents in their homes and against Palestinian farmers,” Mr Arafat said.

Several times in recent weeks, Israeli military operations in Gaza have resulted in civilian casualties. On September 26, an Israeli helicopter fired missiles at a car in Gaza, aiming to kill Hamas bombmaker Mohammed Deif. He survived, but two other Hamas activists were killed and 35 bystanders were wounded.

On July 23, an Israel warplane dropped a huge bomb on a Gaza City apartment building, killing Hamas commander Salah Shehadeh and 14 others, including nine children.