By IINA,
Gaza City : At least 20 Palestinians, including five children, have died in the worst clashes with Israeli troops in Gaza in a month. Among the dead was a Reuters cameraman, who was killed while covering the violence. Three Israeli soldiers also died in the clashes. Yesterday’s death toll was the highest since a broad Israeli military offensive in early March that killed more than 120 Gazans, including dozens of civilians. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern over the violence. Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, on a visit to Moscow, strongly condemned the Israeli military assault and called on all sides to respect a ceasefire.
The Hamas movement has vowed to avenge the killings. “All options are open to repel this aggression against our people,” spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP. The warning today came as thousands of residents of the Gaza Strip gathered for the funeral procession of a cameraman who was killed as he covered the fighting. In a statement published on the internet, the armed wing of Hamas called on its fighters to attack Israel “in every place and with all means available”. “This enemy only understands the language of force,” it said. Three Israeli soldiers were also killed before the military withdrew from the Gaza Strip late yesterday, Al Jazeera reported.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Prime minister, Ehud Olmertsaid that Hamas was “responsible” for the violence. “We consider that Hamas bears sole, direct responsibility for what happened in Gaza and it will pay the price,” he said in an interview with Israel’s Maariv newspaper.
“There is a war in Gaza and we will act against terrorism. Last year we killed more than 200 terrorists.” The surge in violence came after a relatively quiet month and threatened to unravel an Egyptian effort to mediate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The body of Fadl Shanaa, who worked for the Reuters news agency, was wrapped in a bloodied Palestinian flag today, as fellow journalists marched alongside carrying his broken camera and bloodstained flak jacket. He was killed with two Palestinian civilians when a missile hit his vehicle. The marchers waved Palestinian flags and carried small posters of Shana posing with his camera. “Fadal Shana, goodbye, the victim of the truth,” the posters said.
Later, the body was taken to Shana’s hometown of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza where about 3,000 Palestinians attended the funeral. Shanaa had been traveling to the Al Bureij camp to cover the aftermath of an air raid that killed at least 12 Palestinians, including five children aged between 12 and 15. An Israeli helicopter had fired four missiles at targets near the camp in central Gaza. The Palestinian Journalists Union declared a one-day strike to protest the killing of Shana. “His death is a stark reminder of the risks our Palestinian colleagues take every day to cover the news in Gaza,” the Foreign Press Association, representing journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories, said. Reuters released the video taken by Shana in the seconds before his death.
The footage shows a tank on a distant hilltop open fire. A tank shell is seen flying toward the camera followed by a large explosion before the screen went black. Pictures taken by his colleagues after the attack showed that the vehicle was clearly marked as a media vehicle.
Meanwhile today, two Islamic Jihad fighters died during an exchange of fire with Israeli troops during an incursion in the West Bank town of Qabatiya. Islamic Jihad said that the men killed were Bilal Komel, a commander long-wanted by Israel, and 19-year-old Ayed Zakarna.