Israeli troops killed six Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Saturday. Another Palestinian died late Friday. With these deaths, the number of Palestinian casualties in the ongoing Israeli onslaught on the northern Gaza Strip for the past ten days had reached 110 martyrs.
Palestinian medics said two people were killed late on Saturday by Israeli tank fire in Beit Lahiya. Witnesses said the shell hit a house belonging to Mahmoud Salem, one of the suicide bombers at the Israeli port city of Ashdod in March that killed 10 people.
Palestinian eyewitnesses said that in other incident occupation troops killed two Hamas men - Muhammas Yihya Odwan, 20, and Arafat Fuad Nasser, 24 - in a gun battle in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanun. Witnesses said the clash in Beit Hanun erupted as Israeli soldiers moved to demolish the home of an activist they killed in an earlier missile strike.
Earlier Saturday, Israeli helicopters fired two missiles into a southern Gaza Strip refugee camp, killing two Palestinian policemen, witnesses said. They said the missiles struck the Khan Yunis refugee camp. Medical sources said that Saqer Awni Saqer, 25, was killed in the missile explosion in addition to Emad Badr, 28. Locals said that the plane fired at least one missile at the PA security men instantly killing Badr while Saqer died later in hospital.
The israeli army said it had fired at two armed Palestinians.
Also in the Strip, 10 Palestinians were wounded at dawn Saturday in Sikka Street to the east of Jabalya refugee camp when an Israeli army tank fired a shell at residential houses in the vicinity.
Medical sources in the Awda hospital said that the 10 casualties were hospitalized and that the explosion of that shell severely damaged two houses in the vicinity.
Not far from there, Beit Lahia town inhabitants reported that an Israeli reconnaissance plane Friday night fired a missile at a neighborhood in the town but no casualties were reported.
They noted that Salama Abu Sal’a was killed in Beit Lahia Friday night when a shell exploded near him. He was hit with shrapnel that instantly killed him.
The Palestinian Authority’s health ministry said in its latest statistics issued Friday that the number of Palestinian casualties in the ongoing Israeli onslaught on the northern Gaza Strip for the past ten days had reached 103 martyrs and 392 wounded.
Meanwhile, in a heated debate, US President George W. Bush said Friday night that he did not believe Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat could lead the Palestinian people to statehood. Bush stressed that the Palestinians were in need of new leadership that could attain democracy and freedom. (albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
