- JERUSALEM -- The biggest
Israeli raid into Gaza for months left 14 Palestinians dead yesterday,
including three children, amid fears of a sharp upsurge in violence before
Israel's planned withdrawal from the Palestinian territory.
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- Dozens of tanks and armoured vehicles backed by Apache
helicopters entered the crowded Bureij and Nusseirat refugee camps before
dawn, provoking fierce resistance from Palestinians armed with rifles,
rocket launchers and anti-tank weapons.
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- The previous day six Palestinians - four assailants and
two policemen - died in an abortive assault on Israeli troops at the Erez
border checkpoint.
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- The Israeli forces cut telephone and electricity lines
between the refugee camps and central Gaza when the raid got under way,
Palestinian sources said, and put snipers on rooftops.
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- In Nusseirat, Mahmoud Abu Hujair, a father of three,
said: "Soldiers blasted their way into our housing block at 4 am.
They turned our roof into a base to battle gunmen.
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- "Women and children were screaming. The building
was heavily damaged."
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- The Israelis withdrew by mid-morning.
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- Palestinian doctors said three of the dead were boys
aged eight, 12 and 14.
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- Israel said 10 of those killed were known militants,
nine belonging to Hamas and the other to the Popular Resistance Movement,
an umbrella group committed to defending Gaza's refugee camps.
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- At least 72 Palestinians were wounded.
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- It was the biggest death toll in Gaza since an Israeli
raid on the Khan Younis refugee camp in October 2002 killed 19.
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- Tens of thousands of Palestinians joined yesterday's
funeral processions. A Hamas gunman told mourners that the militants were
"ready for confrontation" with Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime
minister.
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- The Palestinian government accused Israel of committing
"state terror against our people" and said it was deliberately
intensifying its military action as a precursor to its planned evacuation
of Jewish settlements in Gaza.
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- "At a time when they're speaking about withdrawing
from Gaza, they're destroying Gaza," said Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian
cabinet minister.
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- Mr Sharon has promised to "unilaterally disengage"
from Gaza and parts of the West Bank and impose his own arrangements in
the absence of a resumption of peace talks in the coming months.
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- Analysts predict that Israel will step up its assaults
on militants in Gaza, who in turn are believed to be keen to inflict as
much damage as possible in Israel in order to portray the withdrawal as
a Palestinian victory.
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- But Israel described yesterday's action as a "pinpoint
strike" against the "terrorist infrastructure", unrelated
to the forthcoming withdrawal.
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- "We are now fighting terrorism. This has nothing
to do with any future plan about Gaza," said a government spokesman,
Avi Pazner.
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- "Terrorism is pouring out of [Bureij] refugee camp,
and we have to stop it. We believe that by doing so we have prevented acts
of terror in Israel and saved many human lives."
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- Israel says Palestinian militants have fired mortar shells
and Qassam rockets at Jewish settlements in Gaza, as well as firing on
Israeli army convoys.
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- About 7,500 Jewish settlers live in the territory, and
1.4 million Palestinians.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1164507,00.html
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