October 17, 2002	Thursday	Sha'aban 10, 1423

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GAZA CITY, Oct 16: Israeli machinegun fire wounded 16 Palestinians, including nine children, on Wednesday in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian security sources said.

Two tanks opened fire without provocation after rumbling a few metres up Rafah’s main boulevard, Salahedin street, which sits on the Gaza Strip’s Israeli-controlled border with Egypt, the sources said.

Six people were immediately hit, including a 12-year-old boy, Ahmed Abu al-Shahar, and 53-year-old Ahmed Asfour, who were both struck in the head and were seriously wounded, security and medical sources added.

The gunfire hit several houses and a UN-administered school for Palestinian refugees and triggered clashes between soldiers and stone-throwing youths that left another six people wounded, including an 11-year-old boy who was shot in the head and a three-year-old hit in the leg, the sources said.

Both were listed in serious condition, the source added.

Gunmen started firing on the soldiers and tanks lobbed at least one shell in the militants’ direction, security sources said.

The tanks had been stationed on the street as the Israeli army began building a new military tower on the border, where the army suspects Palestinian militants smuggle weapons inside Rafah from tunnels into Egypt, the sources said.

The fighting comes as the US administration has voiced discomfort in the past week over a string of killings of Palestinian civilians by the army. —AFP