An Israeli helicopter fired at least one missile into a Palestinian refugee camp as armoured combat vehicles invaded the area in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday, Palestinian security sources and witnesses said.
The invasion sparked a gun battle as Palestinians, roused by a message broadcast on mosque loudspeakers, took up arms to oppose the advancing forces, Reuters reported. Families in the area of Brazil fled for refuge away from the fighting, witnesses said.
A hospital source said one Palestinian was killed by shrapnel from a tank shell and one was injured with bullet wounds in his legs. The dead was a member of the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades.
Supported by dozens of tanks, armored vehicles and bulldozers and covered by three Apache helicopters, Israeli troops stormed Rafah.
The tanks, the armored vehicles and bulldozers squeezed the town bordering Egypt from three different directions, and rolled into the town, while Apache helicopters fired from heavy machine guns at the area, said the witnesses.
At least one Palestinian was moderately injured by shrapnel of a helicopter gunshot, according to Palestinian medical sources, who added that hospitals are prepared for more casualties.
Palestinian security sources said that the Israeli soldiers and the tanks besieged the house of Mohamed Al Qaseer, a Fatah activist killed about eight months ago after he shot dead five Israelis in central Gaza Strip. There were light clashes between local Palestinians and the Israeli soldiers in the area.
The sources said that Israeli soldiers ordered the family of Al Qaseer to immediately evacuate their house. Later on, the family left the house without being allowed to take their belongings or any of the furniture.
Israel has raided the camp before in what it calls operations to destroy houses used by Palestinians as cover to shoot on its forces, or to destroy tunnels used to smuggle weapons.
Eight Israeli soldiers were lightly injured Friday morning after a tank collided with an armored vehicle in Rafah.
The Rafah raid came hours after the Israeli army reported a mortar had been fired, apparently from the Gaza Strip, and landed in a Negev community, and an anti-tank rocket landed near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim, slightly damaging a bus. (Albawaba.com)
