In what appears to be the most bloodiest day since the Palestinian uprising erupted in September 2000, at least 40 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It is also reported that at least three Israeli soldiers were killed during gunbattles with armed Palestinians in Tulkarem refugee camp.
Palestinian sources said that at least 23 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip, four in the Bethlehem area and seven in the Tulkarem area. According the sources, a ten-year-old boy is among the dead in Tulkarem. Dozens were wounded.
Gaza Strip
Following the shooting attack at the Gaza Strip settlement of Atzmona late Thursday night, in which five Israelis were killed and 23 wounded, the Israeli army carried out early morning operations in the village of Khozaa east of Khan Yunis. Soldiers wounded and killed a number of Palestinians and arrested others.
Among the Palestinians killed was PA National Security Commander in the southern Gaza Strip, Major-General Ahmed Mifrij. Palestinian sources said that Mefrej, also known as Abu Hamid, was killed by Israeli gunfire as he was traveling to the site of the fighting in the village. They said that Mifrij came to the area to prevent PA security forces from taking part in the fighting. His bodyguard was also killed in the attack and two others wounded, they added.
Four Palestinians were also killed in an attack by Israel Navy gunboats on a Palestinian police station in northern Gaza and three Palestinians were killed in heavy fighting around Bethlehem, hospital officials said.
According to Palestinian sources, Israeli helicopter gunships fired Friday three missiles at the Palestinian National Security Forces headquarters in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis.
Public Security chief Abdel-Razek al-Majaydeh was in the building preparing for Mifrij's funeral but left after hearing helicopters hovering over the security installation. Five minutes later, missiles slammed into the building, Palestinian officials said.
The PA published the names of those killed in Khozaa: Musa Alnajar, Bakir Alnajar, Ashraf Alnajar, Arif Hirzallah, General Ahmad Mifrij, Reyad Alkassas, Ayman Abu Tir, Marwan Abu Motlak, Ibrahim Abu Daka, khalid Kdeeh, Husam Abu Tir, Reyad Abu Ridi, Muhammad Abu Argili, Muhammad Abu Ridi, Walid Abu Argili, and Ihab Altalatini.
The four killed in Al Sudaniya area, north to Gaza were: Hani Ashour, 32, Saed Shalayel, 26, (an ambulance driver), Samir Younis, and Abid abu ibid.
West Bank
In the West Bank, a large Israeli force, including paratroopers and armored corps, stormed into the western part of Bethlehem and nearby Palestinian villages. The Isreali army took over part of Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Deheisheh, El Hader as well as Beit Sahur, which is east of the city. Palestinian sources reported at least eight dead and 16 wounded. Israeli warplanes bombarded a government building in Bethlehem.
Troops and tanks backed by helicopters poured from two directions into Bethlehem and entered neighboring Beit Jala and the nearby Aida and Deheisheh refugee camps.
Palestinian hospital sources reported that three Palestinians, including a teenage boy, a woman and a doctor, were killed in three separate incidents in the West Bank. The head of a private hospital in Al-Khader, Ahmad Noman, 35, was killed by tankfire as he was driving to his hospital to treat injured Palestinians, AFP reported.
Sayed Abu Sefein, 14, was killed by Israeli fire in Al-Yammun, an autonomous village near Jenin in the northern West Bank.
Huda al-Hawaja, a 31-year-old mother of five was shot dead by the Israeli army in the Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem in the southern West Bank, which the Israeli army has occupied.
In the afternoon, a Palestinian man carrying a bomb was shot dead by Israeli border guards in east Jerusalem, according to Israeli reports.
The PA published the names of the victims in Tulkarem: Yousif Shehada, 33, Akram Ganayim, 18, Muhanad Abu Hilal, 24, Tarik Abu Jamous, 24, Husni Nayef, 28, Walid Ganim, 22, Shadi Abbas, 22, Kamal Salim, 36, (a nurse), Ibrahim Asaad, 25, (an ambulance driver), Ahmad Abu Tama, 50, Bilal Rajab, 24, Mahmoud Abbas, 20, Zeyad Aljarar, 26, Khalid Khirallah, 36, and a ten year old boy, Mahmoud Fayez.
Arafat
Yasser Arafat called for urgent US intervention to "stop the massacres" taking place in the Palestinian territories in a phone conversation with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, the Palestinian leader's top aide told AFP.
Arafat demanded Friday "immediate US intervention to stop the massacres taking place in the West Bank and Gaza Strip", Nabil Abu Rudeina said, adding that the two men also discussed US envoy Anthony Zinni return to the region to broker a ceasefire and current Arab peace efforts. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
