BEIT HANUN (Gaza Strip), Nov 8: Eighteen Palestinians, most of them women and children, were killed on Wednesday as Israeli shells slammed into their Gaza homes in an attack that drew worldwide condemnation and vows of renewed suicide attacks.
The deaths prompted moderate Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas to accuse Israel of destroying peace hopes and rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah to call for renewed suicide attacks. The United States called upon Palestinians to exercise restraint and avoid launching attacks inside Israel.
While Israeli leaders offered regret and aid for the wounded, the international community urged a halt to Gaza operations, which have killed more than 300 Palestinians since a soldier's capture in late June.
But while Defence Minister Amir Peretz ordered a halt to all artillery fire in the coastal strip pending an inquiry, a senior official said the four-month operation against Gaza militants, launched after the seizure of Corporal Gilad Shalit, would go on.“Israeli fire killed 18 people,” said Khaled Radi, a Palestinian health ministry spokesman. Medics said that eight children and five women were among the dead.
Eleven of the dead were from the same family while another 40 people were wounded during the shelling that slammed into a row of five apartment blocks.
“I ran away and saw a second shell strike the houses. A shell fell on people who had run out into the street,” said local resident Ataf Ahmed, 22, following the attack, one day after Israel ended a deadly ground operation in Beit Hanun.
Another two Palestinians, including a Hamas militant, were killed in the nearby refugee camp of Jabaliya and five others, including four militants, were killed in a pre-dawn raid near the flashpoint city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
A three-day mourning period was declared in the Palestinian territories, while Mr Abbas and Premier Ismail Haniya expressed a rare show of unity, holding hands on their way to donate blood at a Gaza hospital.
In a joint statement, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Mr Peretz `expressed their regret over the deaths of Palestinian civilians’ and `offered... urgent humanitarian assistance and immediate medical care for the wounded’.—AFP
