'IDF' helicopters slaughter 9, wound 73

["David Quarter" <davidquarter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Israeli Strikes in Gaza Kill 9, Wound 73 
18 minutes ago  

By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer 

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israeli warplanes and helicopters hit 
Palestinian targets in four separate strikes Monday, a day of 
intense air assaults that killed nine people, including at least two 
militants, and wounded 93 others. One missile exploded on a 
street crowded with schoolchildren. 

The airstrikes came a day after Palestinian militants fired eight 
homemade rockets from Gaza into Israel and Palestinian gunmen 
ambushed an Israeli patrol in the West Bank, killing three Israeli 
soldiers. 


The violent Islamic movements, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, 
threatened revenge for Monday's airstrikes, and Israeli Prime 
Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) pledged more raids, further 
clouding Mideast peace efforts. 


"The Israeli military will continue to act to foil terror attacks, 
capture murderers and liquidate terror organizations," Sharon said 
in a speech to parliament. 


Later Monday, the helicopters targeted a car in the Nusseirat 
refugee camp in central Gaza after nightfall, killing six people and 
wounding 70, witnesses and Palestinian officials said. 


Residents said one of the dead was a doctor who was treating 
victims when a second missile struck. The identity of the other 
victims was not immediately known, and the military did not 
comment. 


The missiles struck the main street of the refugee camp, 
destroying the car. Hundreds of camp residents carried charred 
pieces of the vehicle aloft and chanted, "Revenge, revenge." 


The first three strikes destroyed two weapons labs and warehouses 
of Hamas, the military said. Four children and a 70-year-old woman 
were among 23 wounded. Two missiles exploded on a street 
crowded with schoolchildren. 


In Gaza City, residents reported hearing an explosion as Israeli F-
16 warplanes flew overhead. They said Israelis attacked the 
Shajaiyeh neighborhood, target of an earlier strike on Monday. The 
military did not comment. 


The airstrikes came as U.S. officials at the embassy in Tel Aviv 
confirmed that John Wolf, the head of the team monitoring 
implementation of the troubled U.S.-backed "road map" peace 
plan, was not planning to return to the region soon. Wolf left for the 
United States last month, saying at the time he'd be back in 10 
days. 


A Palestinian bombing attack on a U.S. convoy in Gaza last week, 
killing three American guards, had led to expectations that the 
United States would scale back its involvement. 


Negotiations over implementing the "road map" plan, formally 
presented in June, have sputtered amid violence and political 
turmoil. The plan calls for an end to the three-year conflict and 
leads to a Palestinian state in 2005. 


However, except for a six-week Palestinian stand-down in the 
summer, clashes and bombings have continued unabated. Also, 
the Palestinians have been unable to field a stable government, and 
with Israel and the United States boycotting Palestinian leader 
Yasser Arafat (news - web sites), no recent contacts have been 
held between Israeli Palestinian officials. 


In his speech, Sharon called Arafat "the greatest obstacle to 
peace." Therefore, he added, "Israel is determined to bring about 
his removal from the political arena," referring to a Cabinet decision 
last month. In a newspaper interview last week, Sharon had 
indicated that he had no plan to expel Arafat ? an apparent 
softening of Israel's position. 


Sharon's criticism of Arafat was greeted with catcalls and prompted 
several Arab legislators to walk out of the chamber. The speech 
also received a harsh response from Shimon Peres, leader of the 
opposition Labor Party, who accused Sharon of being insincere in 
his peacemaking efforts. 


"Prime minister, you have missed the opportunity," Peres said. 


"We are dealing with a nation that is fighting for its freedom, and 
don't take them lightly," said Peres, who shared the 1994 Nobel 
peace prize, of the Palestinians. 

   
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian peace negotiator, called 
Sharon's address a "speech of continuing the use of the most 
disproportionate use of force against Palestinians and a speech 
that was determined to undermine hope, peace, and 
reconciliation." 

The facilities Israel targeted Monday had been used to make and 
store weapons, including Qassams, the army said. Hamas has 
fired dozens of Qassams, with a range of about six miles, at Israeli 
settlements in Gaza and at towns just outside the fence in the past 
three years. 

The airstrikes targeted the "artery of the weapons chain," said an 
Israeli army spokeswoman, Maj. Sharon Feingold. 

Palestinians were harshly critical. Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia 
said that "the world should wake up to this aggression," but that he 
still hopes to negotiate a truce with Israel. 

In the first strike, Israeli warplanes bombed a building under 
construction in Gaza City that Israel said was a weapons site. 

Eleven Palestinians were hurt in the bombing. The alleged weapons 
workshop was 200 yards from the house of Islamic Jihad leader 
Abdullah Shami, who was not hurt. 

Less than three hours later, two missiles hit a white pickup truck. 
An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 
the two men in the truck had tried to salvage explosives not 
destroyed in the initial airstrike. 

The two men in the truck and a bystander were killed, and 12 
Palestinians were hurt, four seriously. Israel has killed dozens of 
wanted Palestinians, as well as many bystanders, in targeted 
attacks. 

The pickup had stopped at a traffic light near a gas station on a 
busy street crowded with school children, when the missiles hit the 
front of the vehicle. A kindergarten and an elementary school had 
just let out students for the day. 

"School children were trying to cross the road (at the time)," said 
bus driver Ahmed Sobeh, who was driving behind the pickup. "I saw 
a person in the car being evacuated and his body was completely 
burned. I also saw a teenager on the side of the street covered with 
blood but he was alive." 

In the third attack, a missile destroyed a one-room house on the 
outskirts of Gaza City. A second missile demolished a car parked 
nearby, Palestinian officials said. The car's passengers apparently 
fled before the missile hit, witnesses said. 

About 2,000 Palestinians took part in a funeral procession for the 
three people killed in the airstrikes. Participants carried Palestinian 
flags and the green banners of Hamas. Many touched the coffins 
and chanted anti-Israel slogans. 

No Hamas leaders attended the funeral. Militant leaders have not 
appeared in public in recent months, fearing Israeli attacks. 

In a statement released in Beirut, the leaders of Hamas and 
Islamic Jihad pledged to retaliate for Israel's attacks on 
Palestinians. 

"The two movements agreed to confront the Zionist aggression on 
our people in Palestine and to urge all (Palestinian) factions and 
resistance forces to coordinate among each other to confront this 
aggression," the statement said. 

In the West Bank, soldiers imposed a curfew on the village of Ein 
Yabrud, near the town of Ramallah, and searched for the attackers 
in Sunday's ambush, the military said. Three soldiers were killed 
and another was seriously wounded. 




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