More victims, more hatred, the world no more cares

GAZA CITY, April 3 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – In a fresh Israeli army raid overnight, six Palestinians were killed and eight injured in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

The Israeli incursion penetrated up to one kilometer (about 1,000 yards) into the southern Gaza refugee camp in Rafah close to the Egyptian border, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.

An Israeli tank fired two shells and soldiers also opened fire while two assault helicopters circled overhead before one of them shot a rocket towards the camp, the sources said.

Four of the dead were in the refugee camp of Rafah, where the army mounted an incursion with around 40 tanks and a number of bulldozers, sparking a firefight, according to AFP.

Mahmoud Shaath, 24, was killed by an Israeli tank shell while Wissam al-Shaar, also 24, and Ibrahim Shaluf, 18, died when they were hit by a rocket fired from a helicopter. Walid al-Ledawi, 19, died later from shrapnel wounds after the missile attack.

Eight other Palestinians were injured, two of whom were in a critical condition during the incursion which penetrated up to one kilometer (about 1,000 yards) into the camp.

Meanwhile, four Israeli soldiers were slightly hurt during the operation when their armored vehicle overturned after the explosion of a remote-controlled device, Israeli military sources said.

"Our forces combed the sector and carried out searches, then demolished four abandoned houses under which tunnels could be dug to smuggle arms in from Egypt," the army said in a statement after the operation wound up.

In the West Bank town of Qalqilya, a Palestinian teenager was killed by Israeli troops, according to AFP. Jihad Mazal, 14, was killed on the doorstep of his home as soldiers opened fire during an incursion in the northern town, they said.

Several tanks and jeeps took part in the raid, during which two Palestinians were arrested.

Daily routine of Israeli occupation forces

Elsewhere, an activist with the Islamic resistance group Hamas was also shot dead by Israeli soldiers, the security sources said.

Khaled Rehan, 28, a member of Ezzedin al-Qassam, the armed wing of Hamas, opened fire on Israeli soldiers when they tried to arrest him at a house in Nablus, and he was killed in the return fire.

The army said it also destroyed overnight the home in Tulkarem of Mahmoud Marmarsh, a Hamas activist who in May 2001 carried out a suicide attack at a shopping centre in Israel that killed five Israelis and wounded 74.

In the Rafah area, the demolitions have created an ever-widening no-man's land between the Gaza Strip and neighboring Egypt.

The latest deaths take the toll to 3,126 since the start of the intifada in September 2000. The figure includes 2,349 Palestinians and 719 Israelis.

The army has since August 2002 demolished almost 200 houses in the West Bank and Gaza of Palestinians accused of taking part in attacks inside Israel or against Jewish settlers and soldiers in the Palestinian territories.