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A wounded Palestinian boy is carried to hospital after he was shot during the Israeli raid
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GAZA
CITY, December 18 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Two Palestinians
were killed Saturday, December 18, by Israeli occupation
forces in the southern Gaza Strip refugee camp of Khan Yunis, brining
to 11 the number of Palestinians killed in the open-ended Israeli
incursion.
Meanwhile,
Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon’s ruling Likud party and the opposition
Labour agreed Friday to form a national unity government, a move
needed to ensure implementation of his unilateral “disengagement”
plan to pull Israeli soldiers and settlers out of the Gaza Strip in
2005.
Twenty-five
other Palestinians have been wounded from Israeli tank rounds, artillery and
automatic gunfire,
reported Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoting Palestinian medical
sources.
Israeli
occupation troops killed late Friday, December 17, nine Palestinians
during the large-scale offensive, one day after Sharon bragged about a
“historic” peace opportunity between the Israelis and the
Palestinians.
Israeli
tanks supported by helicopter gunships rolled into Khan Yunis shortly
before
midnight
Thursday, December 16.
Palestinian
witnesses told AFP that at least four bulldozers razed houses and
shelters in the camp, forcing hundreds of families to gather near the
hospital and a stadium.
The
latest deaths brought to 4,633 the overall toll since the September
2000 outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada, including 3,590
Palestinians and 968 Israelis, according to an AFP count.
The
occupation army claimed the Khan Yunis sweep was aimed at clamping
down on attacks by Palestinian resistance fighters on nearby Jewish
settlements, noting that it would go on indefinitely.
“The
forces are prepared to stay in the refugee camp for as long as it
takes to secure quiet in the Israeli communities,” Commander Ofer
Winter told the Israeli army radio.
Israeli
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said last week Israeli forces would
withdraw from Palestinian towns before the presidential elections,
scheduled for January 9.
Qassam
Response
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A Palestinian mother with her children after being displaced by the Israeli raid |
The
deadly raid drew an immediate response from Palestinian resistance
fighters, who fired two Qassam rockets at the western Negev.
One
mortar shell further landed in an industrial zone in the northern Gaza
Strip, damaging one factory,
Israel
’s Haaretz newspaper reported.
Palestinians
also fired anti-tank missiles at the occupation troops and detonated
an explosive device near them, causing no casualties.
On
Thursday evening, 11 Israeli soldiers were slightly wounded by mortar
fire near Netzer Hazani settlement close to Khan Yunis claimed by
Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian resistance
movement Hamas.
Last
Sunday, December 12, a bomb attack left five Israeli soldiers dead in
Rafah near a border crossing with Egypt.
Coalition
Govt.
On
the Israeli political front, Sharon's spokesman Asaf Shariv said the
Labour party would have eight ministerial posts under the new
coalition accord, expected to be signed Sunday, December 19, AFP
reported.
Labour
leader Shimon Peres would be a deputy prime minister at the premier's
office, he added.
Incumbent
deputy premier Ehud Olmert, also the minister of trade, threatened to
resign if the title was transferred to Peres, Haaretz said.
Yoram
Dori, a spokesman for Peres, said “all the obstacles have been
removed” and that the accord would be formalized “within 24 to 36
hours.”
The
move was hailed by Israeli observers as a key step towards the planned
pullout of Israeli troops and evacuation of Israeli settlers from the
Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements.
Sharon
, in a speech Thursday at a forum in Herzliya near Tel Aviv,
paradoxically dismissing any Israeli return to the pre-1967 borders or
allowing Palestinian refugees back to their homeland.
Sharon
’s “peace offer” was immediately
rebuffed by chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization
(PLO) and presidential front-runner Mahmmoud Abbas.
“We
will never concede the right of return and the keeping of illegal
settlement outposts which have been rejected since 1967. Sharon
is the obstacle in the way of peace.”
