Israel Kills Seven Palestinians In W.Bank, Gaza

Israeli undercover troops infiltrated into the western district of Tulkarm and shot dead the six fighters in cold blood, Director of Tulkarm hospital Dr. Ahmad Abu Bakr said.

The deadly attack has also left six others injured, he added.

The Israeli army, on the other hand, claimed that border policemen had clashed with Palestinian fighters, killing six and arresting two.

The raid was one of Israel’s deadliest in recent weeks and drew immediate calls for revenge from angry crowds that gathered at the site as Israeli helicopters patrolled overhead.

Gaza Raid

In the Gaza Strip, a 50-year-old Palestinian woman was critically injured when Israeli troops from watchtowers in Al-Qarar district in Gaza City opened fire indiscriminately on Palestinian homes.

Ghalia Yunis breathed her last at dawn Monday, July 26.

Earlier, an Israeli F-16 fighter jet had fired two missiles, destroying a building in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood after dark Sunday.

The home is owned by Hamas activist Abu Malik Jundiya. The raid has injured three Palestinians, including a four-year-old boy.

According to Palestinian security officials, the target was the same building that helicopters had struck hours earlier, which an Israeli spokesman described then as a Hamas weapons workshop.

Elsewhere in Gaza, seven Palestinians were wounded when Israeli soldiers opened fire on Khan Yunis after a rocket attack on the Israeli settlement, Palestinian medics said.

Palestinian fighters fired earlier Sunday a missile into the Jewish settlement of Neveh Dekalim in the Gaza Strip, which injured four settlers.

The attack was claimed by Hamas’ armed wing Ezzudin Al-Qassam Brigades.

Israeli Human Chain

The attack came after more than 100,000 Israelis joined hands in a human chain from Al-Quds (occupied Jerusalem) to the Gaza Strip Sunday to protest against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to pull Jewish settlers from the occupied territory, Reuters news agency said.

Organizers said some 200,000 took part, while Israeli police estimated the crowd at 130,000.

Under Sharon’s plan for "disengagement" from nearly four years of conflict with the Palestinians, all 21 settlements in Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank should be evacuated by the end of next year.