Annan in plea to Israel after Mosque killings

United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan urged Israel to “do their utmost” to protect civilians after two Palestinian women were killed as they marched into a Gaza combat zone to help free gunmen besieged at a mosque.

At least 10 other women were wounded, but some gunmen managed to escape yesterday’s stand-off in Beit Hanoun.

Hundreds of Palestinian women in robes and headscarves, many with ties to the Islamic militant group Hamas, left their homes after daybreak yesterday in response to appeals on the local Hamas radio station or telephone calls from friends and relatives.

By nightfall, they were celebrated as heroes, an unusual role in a deeply conservative society that tends to keep women on the sidelines. Until yesterday, battling Israeli troops had been men’s business in Gaza.

Prime minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas “saluted the women of Palestine ... who led the protest to break the siege of Beit Hanoun”. He urged Annan to witness first-hand “the massacres of the Palestinian people” and appealed to the Arab world to “stop the ongoing bloodshed”.

Palestinian UN observer Riyad Mansour said he sent letters to Annan and the presidents of the UN Security Council and General Assembly “requesting from them to do whatever they can to stop this aggression immediately” and to pressure Israel to withdraw its forces from Gaza.

Annan expressed deep concern at the continuing escalation of violence and rising death toll and urged Israel “to exercise maximum restraint, do their utmost to protect civilians and to refrain from further escalating an already grave situation”, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The mosque stand-off came on the third day of Israel’s fiercest bid in months to halt Palestinian rocket fire on Israeli border communities. The offensive began on Wednesday, when Israeli forces took over Beit Hanoun, close to the border with Israel.

In all, 35 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Wednesday, including 17 on Friday. Among those killed yesterday were the two women protesters, a 16-year-old boy, two medics and at least 10 militants.

The Beit Hanoun sweep was different from previous Israeli incursions into Gaza, a senior Israeli military official said. Rather than staying on the outskirts of populated areas, troops were going house to house in Beit Hanoun, sometimes breaking through inner walls to cut down on exposure to gunmen.

In the most dramatic episode of the Beit Hanoun incursion, dozens of Palestinian gunmen, many from Hamas, took cover in the town’s Al Nasser Mosque on Thursday and were quickly surrounded by Israeli forces. The two sides exchanged fire throughout the night. An army bulldozer knocked down an outer wall of the mosque, causing the ceiling to collapse.

Yesterday morning, Al Aqsa Radio, the local Hamas station, broadcast appeals to women to come to the rescue of the trapped gunmen. Hundreds responded, many of them Hamas supporters. The women marched toward the mosque, coming under Israeli fire at times, and approached armoured personnel carriers and bulldozers near the mosque.

Volleys of shots were fired towards them, sending the group rushing towards a nearby wall for cover, according to Associated Press Television News footage. In all, nearly 60 shots were heard on the footage, but it was not clear in every case who fired.

Two women, both 40, were killed, and at least 10 others were wounded, hospital officials said.

One of the wounded, Tahrir Shahin, a 36-year-old housewife, said that after hearing the radio appeal she left her seven children sleeping at home and set out for the mosque, an hour’s walk away, with her sister. On the way a bullet hit Shahin’s left leg, which had to be amputated above the knee.

She said she had no regrets. “I was so upset about what was happening, so I answered their call,” she said from her hospital bed.

The Israeli army’s Major Avital Leibovich accused Hamas of exploiting women. “They were using those poor women as human shields,” she said. “This is a clear example of use of innocent population for terror.”

The army said the gunmen inside the mosque took advantage of the demonstration to escape because there were not enough infantrymen to block the women from approaching the building, and troops did not want to shoot into the crowd.

The army said troops spotted two militants hiding in the crowd of women and opened fire, hitting the two.

As the women rushed away from the scene, at least two men disguised in women’s clothes were seen in the crowd. Jubilant bystanders embraced them, celebrating their escape.