Gaza Watch #14:Israeli army kills 6 Palestinian civilians in Gaza Strip

Agence France Presse
30 August 2006

GAZA CITY (AFX) - Six Palestinians were killed today by Israeli tank
fire in the Gaza Strip, while the West Bank military chief of the
hardline Islamic Jihad faction, Hossam Jaradat, died after being
wounded a week ago.

Five Palestinians were killed and three wounded by tank fire in the
Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, where Israeli troops have been
conducting operations since Saturday night, hospital officials said.

The operation is part of a two-month Israeli offensive in the
increasingly lawless territory that has targeted militants but often
killed civilians.

According to witnesses, two Shejaiya residents, Rami al-Gharabli,
27, and Yasser al-Gharabli, 25, were trying to escape their house
encircled by Israeli tanks when they were hit. Two other men, Raed
Isbita, 23, and Mohand Jindiya, 23, attempted to help the pair but
were struck in turn. Another man, Salman Abu Qunbus, 25, was killed
in a separate incident in Shejaiya.

According to witnesses, all five were civilians.

An army spokesman said that the tanks fired after 'armed men
approached troops operating in Shejaiya'.

Fifteen Palestinians have been killed in the neighborhood since the
Israeli operation began there on Saturday.

The Israeli army said it had discovered a large tunnel, 13 meters
deep and 150 meters long, running from a house in Shejaiya towards
the Karni crossing with Israel, which they believed was 'meant to be
used for an attack on the terminal'.

Meanwhile in northern Gaza, a 24-year-old mentally handicapped man
was killed overnight by Israeli gunfire after he approached the
border with Israel, hospital officials said.