- GAZA CITY (IslamOnline.net
& News Agencies) -- Israeli forces killed 10 Palestinians in fresh
air strikes on Rafah on Thursday, May 13, as bodies of four Palestinians
were found after the occupation troops pulled out of Gaza City after a
two-day incursion.
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- An Israeli helicopter early on Thursday fired two missiles
that struck a crowd of Palestinians in Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza
strip, killing at least seven Palestinians, witnesses told Israeli newspaper
Haaretz.
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- The Israeli army claimed the target was a group of fighters
planting bombs and firing at soldiers who had swept into the densely-populated
camp, the paper said.
-
- The Rafah refugee camp was pounded by a second Israeli
helicopter strike later Thursday, killing three people and wounding at
least 15 others, Palestinian medical source said.
-
- Two missiles were fired, which also left 15 people wounded,
Rafah hospital director Ali Mussa told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
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- Four Bodies
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- In the meantime, bodies of four Palestinians were found
as Israeli occupation forces began withdrawal from the Zeitoun neighborhood,
two days after an incursion that left 16 Palestinians killed, Aljazeera
said on its website.
-
-
- The Israeli forces had demolished buildings and burst
into homes in the densely populated neighborhood, backed up by snipers
on rooftops and Apache helicopters hovering overhead.
-
- Navy gunboats shelled the coast and opened fire on an
area near Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's old compound.
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- The latest deaths brought to 4,016 the number of people
killed since the start of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000, including
3,027 Palestinians and 916 Israelis.
-
- Deal clinched
-
- The pullout from Zeitoun came shortly after two Palestinian
officials and an Egyptian diplomat handed over the remains of six soldiers
killed in Gaza City to Israel at the Erez border crossing.
-
- "The Israeli side has received the box containing
the remains of the soldiers' bodies," one official told AFP on condition
of anonymity.
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- There was no official confirmation from the Israeli side,
with an army spokeswoman saying "we will not be commenting on this
issue".
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- Rashid Abu Shbak, the Gaza Strip Preventive Security
Chief, and Ribhi Arafat, head of Gaza 's district coordination office,
traveled with the Egyptian diplomat to the border crossing for the handover.
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- Six Israeli soldiers were killed by the Palestinian
resistance fighters during the incursion on Tuesday, the highest Israeli
casualty count in a single army operation in two years.
-
- On Wednesday, May 12, at least five Israeli soldiers
were killed when their armored personnel carrier was destroyed in the area.
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- http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2004-05/13/article02.shtml
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