"Israeli" incursion in southern Gaza Strip leaves six dead, 28 wounded

Source: AFP, 14-8-2007
Six Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday as the "Israeli" military carried out its latest incursion into the territory controlled by Hamas, sources said. The "Israeli" Army claimed four of those killed were Hamas fighters. Overall 28 people were wounded as a result of the fighting in the area, medics said.
In an operation that began early on Tuesday and was continuing more than 12 hours later, "Israeli" tanks backed by helicopters rolled into Gaza near the southern town of Khan Yunis, witnesses and the army said.
The troops were operating "against terror threats in the area, including tunnels and rockets," and engaged in gunfights with militants on the ground, said an army spokesman.
A Hamas gunman, 24-year-old Mohammad Abu Musameh, was killed in an early morning air strike. Later another Hamas militant, Omar al-Qarrah, was killed along with his mother, Sabha, when their house was fired on, medics said.
Another civilian, 40-year-old Ibrahim al-Shami, was also killed as a result of the fighting, medics said.
Early in the evening, medics recovered the bodies of Hamas` Ahmad al-Qawa, 25, and Mussab Abu Jiama, 27, whose affiliation was not immediately clear, medics and Hamas said.
The army spokesman said the "Israeli" military carried out air and ground strikes against "armed militants that represented a threat to the forces."
Eight militants from the Islamic Jihad group were wounded, five of them critically, in two air strikes that were launched within minutes of each other and targeted a car with gunmen inside and a group of militants, medics said.
The "Israeli" Army said it had detained around 100 people and was in the process of questioning them.
Tuesday`s deaths bring to 5,815 the number of people killed since the start of the second Palestinian uprising in September 2000, the vast majority of them Palestinian civilians, according to an AFP count.
It marked the latest "Israeli" military operation inside Gaza since Hamas seized control of the territory following Palestinian infighting in June.
The rout effectively split the Palestinians into two separate entities, with Western-allied President Mahmoud Abbas ruling the occupied West Bank and Hamas in control of Gaza.
Following the June 15 takeover, Abbas fired the Hamas-led unity government headed by Ismail Haniyya, replacing it with a Cabinet led by economist Salam Fayyad.
Separately, at least five Palestinians were wounded in Gaza City on Tuesday in exchanges of fire between Hamas` Executive Force police and members of Gaza`s powerful Doghmush clan, medics, witnesses and Hamas said.
The clashes erupted around the Doghmush compound in Gaza City after Executive Force fighters entered the area in pursuit of "suspect" persons they aimed to arrest, a Hamas spokesman said.