Seven Year Old Among 6 Palestinians Killed by IOF

Mother Among 6 Palestinians Killed by IOF in A’basan

Palestinian Death toll Rises to 17 in 5 Days, 7-Year-old Girl Slain 21/03/2004

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed three Palestinian activists and three bystanders, including a mother and a wife, in A’basan village east of the central Gaza Strip of Khan Younis early Sunday, a teenager in the West Bank on Saturday, while a 7-year-old girl and three civilians died of wounds sustained during earlier Israeli raids, to raise the Palestinian death toll to 17 since Wednesday.

In the five days that preceded Wednesday, IOF also demolished at least forty Palestinian houses in the occupied territory.

Predawn Sunday, IOF troops, backed by tanks and US-made Apache helicopters, invaded the village of A’basan, east of the central Gaza Strip of Khan Younis, killing five Palestinians, wounding at least five others and demolishing three houses.

IOF troops entered the town at around 3:00am local time with tanks, jeeps and helicopters, AFP reported.

Palestinian medics said that 25-year-old Abdul-Rahman Al-Dirbasi, Tha’er Qdaih, 21, Basem Qdaih, 23, his wife Samaher, Amneh Qdaih, and Ra’fat Abu Ta’imah, 23, were killed in the raid.

IOF claimed their troops shot at an alleged member of the Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” in the town of Khan Younis as he tried to flee, and he exploded, claiming he was carrying a bomb or wearing an explosive belt.

Palestinian doctors who checked the body contradicted the IOF account, saying the victim suffered extensive bullet wounds but did not show signs of having been in an explosion.

Another four Palestinian bystanders were killed by IOF troops, who were met with resistance from Palestinian anti-Israeli occupation activists, medics said.

One day earlier, IOF troops shot dead 17-year-old Palestinian Mohammad Shtaiwi Abu Muhsen in the Balata refugee camp, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus. Palestinians said the teenager was throwing stones at the forces with a group of youths. The IOF claimed he was armed.

An IOF spokeswoman alleged its forces fired at “an armed Palestinian who approached the soldiers with the intent to attack them” in the Balata refugee camp.

Early Sunday, Ibrahim Al-Hu died of wounds sustained during an IOF raid into Gaza City, some 20 days ago, WAFA reported.

In the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, a seven-year-old Palestinian girl died from wounds she sustained on Friday, hospital officials said.

Fatima al-Jallad was shot in the head while playing outside her home in the Khan Younis refugee camp, Palestinian officials said.

Neighbors said the girl was killed by IOF soldiers who fired from an outpost at the nearby illegal Jewish settlement of “Ganei Tal”.

An IOF spokeswoman said she did not have any information about the girl. But she claimed that at about the same time soldiers nearby fired warning shots in the air as two Palestinians entered an off-limits buffer zone between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

On Friday also 23-year-old Ayman Abdul Karim Abu Hasem died of wounds sustained during the IOF raid into the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on Wednesday.

A day earlier, 27-year-old Adli Mohammad Abu Taha also died of wounds sustained during the same IOF invasion of Rafah.

IOF launched Tuesday morning a wide-scale invasion of Rafah, killing six Palestinians, including two children, demolishing seven houses and wounding nine, one critically.

Palestinian Minister of Negotiations Affairs, Dr. Sa’eb Erekat, said in a statement, “the situation in the Palestinian territories is seriously grave, and we demand that the Quartet (comprising the US, the UN, the EU and Russia) and all its members to stop this military escalation.”

Erekat asserted that the Israeli offensive on Gaza Strip would never bring peace or stability to the region, but expand the cycle of violence. He warned of a humane catastrophe in the Strip as a result of the ongoing IOF invasions.

“What is happening in Gaza is reoccupation and a return back to the extra-judicial execution policy Israel has adopted against the Palestinian population,” the minister stressed.

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