Two Palestinians Martyred in Gaza

Source: alalam.ir, 11-06-2008
GAZA CITY-A Palestinian girl and a Hamas resistance fighter were martyred early on Wednesday in Gaza by a shell fired from an 'Israeli' tank in the south of the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian medics said.
The 'Israeli' shell aimed at a resistance group slammed into a nearby house, decapitating 10-year-old Hadeel al-Smeiri in her back yard and wounding two members of her family east of Khan Yunis, medical officials and a relative said.

Associated Press Television News footage showed that the girl's head had been blown off.
Hadeel's cousin, Ahmad al-Smari, told The Associated Press that Hadeel was in the back yard of her family's house when a shell struck.
"I am sure that she was up because no one can sleep day or night because of the army fire and clashes near our homes,'' he said in a telephone interview from the hospital in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis.

The 'Israeli' regime's military said the troops had opened fire at activists, but was unaware of any Palestinian civilian casualties.
An activist from the armed wing of the ruling Islamic Hamas movement was also martyred a short time later in the same area, again by tank fire, the sources said.
The man's identity was not immediately known.
On Tuesday, three members of the Hamas' armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, were martyred and five others were wounded by 'Israeli' fire in the eastern Gaza Strip.
For months, Egypt has been trying to broker a truce between the resistance movement and the 'Israeli' regime.

But the cease-fire efforts have faltered over the occupying regime's blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said on Tuesday that the resistance is ready to cooperate with Egyptian efforts at finding a truce, if 'Israelis' "stopped their violence and terrorism and stopped their attacking on Gaza and West Bank and lift the siege and embargo."
Although it has long threatened to launch a large-scale incursion into Gaza, the 'Israeli' regime has so far stopped short of that in its military incursions.

However, several hundred Palestinians have been martyred in Gaza this year alone.
A broad military aggression carries the risk of high 'Israeli' military and Palestinian civilian casualties, and that has been the major deterrent.
Hanging over new 'Israeli' regime's discussions will be a new corruption probe against Olmert, which threatens to topple him and possibly his regime.

Both foreign minister Tzipi Livni and war minister Ehud Barak are working to unseat Olmert, but a Gaza operation could put any political maneuvers on hold.
This week, Hamas will mark the first anniversary of its takeover of the coastal strip from Fatah security forces affiliated with Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas.

While battling resistance fighters in Gaza, the occupying regime has been trying to pursue talks with Abbas.
The fence mending talks resumed at a US-sponsored conference in November, after seven years of violence.