At least 39 Palestinians martyred in "Israeli" incursion into Gaza

Source: alalam.ir, 4-11-2006
GAZA CITY, Nov. 4--At least four Palestinians have been martyred in fresh "Israeli" violence as huge army bulldozers began demolishing homes in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun on the fourth day of a savage incursion.
Saturday`s deaths brought to at least 39 the number of Palestinians martyred in the occupation military`s ruthless campaign against Beit Hanoun.
An "Israeli" aircraft fired a missile at a car traveling through Gaza City carrying a local official in the Izzeddin al-Qassam Brigades, martyring him and wounding four others.
Three more people were martyred in separate incidents.
A civilian was buried under the rubble of his small home brought down by an "Israeli" tank shell; a Hamas fighter was martyred by an army sniper; and another Hamas fighter was shot dead in a gunbattle with invading troops near a building used by Zionist forces.
Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida said resistance fighters had attacked the building with explosives and rockets.
Witnesses said they saw two Zionists being evacuated on stretchers, after a helicopter landed in an open area near the house.
The army declined comment on these incidents, and the reports of house demolitions.
More than 200 people have been wounded in the sweep so far, including 29 who are in critical condition, Palestinian health officials said.
Nineteen Palestinians were martyred Friday in the deadliest day in the Gaza Strip for months, as the Zionist regime stepped up the offensive it launched into Beit Hanoun on Wednesday.
Eight Palestinians were martyred in after-dark aerial attacks following "Israeli" violence in which 11 other people, including two women, were martyred.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said two of the Jebaliya dead were ambulance crewmen tending victims of a missile hit when a second rocket struck.
Since taking over Beit Hanoun earlier in the week, troops have conducted house-to-house searches, sometimes breaking through inner walls, posted snipers on roofs and rounded up hundreds of men for questioning.
Since nightfall Friday, aircraft have struck a dozen times. Early Saturday, a missile fired from the air hit a minivan carrying Hamas activists.
The strike martyred Louay al-Borno, a top Hamas rocket maker, and severed the legs of two other passengers, wounding them critically. The van burst into flames.
Army bulldozers, meanwhile, began demolishing homes near a Beit Hanoun mosque that had been the scene of a deadly standoff between troops and resistance fighters the day before.
The huge D9 bulldozers demolished at least five houses near the mosque, and residents were given no warning, their neighbors said.
"It (the bulldozer) was moving in the dark like a big dinosaur, Fayez Abu Harbid, a school teacher from Beit Hanoun, told the Associate Press by telephone.
The raids came just hours after resistance fighters escaped a besieged mosque in a daring rescue bid mounted by women in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, which "Israeli" troops have been occupying since Wednesday.
Four protestors, including two women, were martyred ahead of the rescue of 15 resistance fighters from various armed groups who had been besieged in the Al-Nasr mosque.
Braving "Israeli" gunfire and tanks, around 200 women marched on and entered the mosque to collect the fighters before walking out.
"We risked our lives to free our sons," said Um Mohammed, in her 40s.
Detailed description of the events was difficult to obtain, because most residents said they stay clear of windows for fear of army snipers posted around them.
Atef Adwan, minister of refugee affairs in the Hamas government, told a local Hamas radio station that Zionist forces have taken over the rooftop of his Beit Hanoun home and posted snipers there.
He said he and his family fled to a neighbor`s house.
Resident Samia Adwan, a secretary in the Palestinian National Authority, said she saw outer walls destroyed by bulldozers, streets carved up by tanks, and dangling electricity wires.
A senior Zionist military official confirmed that the Beit Hanoun sweep was different from previous "Israeli" incursions into Gaza, which resumed in June.
In the past, troops would largely stay on the outskirts of populated areas, instead of going house-to-house, like in Beit Hanoun, he said.
The Palestinians appealed for international intervention, asking for pressure on the occupation regime to halt the carnage.
President Abbas and the head of the Hamas-led government, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, have condemned the offensive as a "massacre".
Palestinian UN observer Riyad Mansour said he sent letters to UN chief Kofi Annan and other top UN officials "requesting from them to do whatever they can to stop this aggression immediately".
The martyrdom of the two unarmed women in Beit Hanoun, captured by television cameras and broadcast around the world, provoked an angry response from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
He demanded immediate UN intervention in the conflict.
Annan expressed deep concern at the continuing escalation of "Israeli" violence and rising death toll and urged the Zionist regime "to exercise maximum restraint, do their utmost to protect civilians and to refrain from further escalating an already grave situation".
While Britain and France called for restraint and avoiding further civilian casualties, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack put the blame on Palestinian resistance fighters and said "Israel" was defending itself.
"It is a true tragedy that innocent life has been lost," McCormack said, adding "but let us remember "Israel" has taken steps to defend itself".
More than 100 people have also been kidnapped by the "Israeli" occupation army in the latest Gaza incursion.
In the West Bank, Haniyeh`s Public Works and Housing Minister Abdelrahman Zidane was abducted by Zionist troops at dawn from his home in the territory`s political capital Ramallah.
Businesses in the West Bank went on strike in protest at the Gaza carnage.
Iron shutters remained closed over shopfronts in Ramallah after fighters from the Al-Aqsa Brigades, a faction loosely linked to President Mahmud Abbas` Fatah party, called over loudspeakers for the strike.
In "Israeli" violence in the occupied West Bank, Zionist troops shot and martyred a local leader of the Islamic Jihad resistance movement in a raid on a house in Beit-ul-Lahm.
Palestinian women flash the V-sign for victory as they try to approach an "Israel"i tank during a demonstration at the entrance of Beit Hanoun during an "Israel"i army incursion.