By Xinhua
Ramallah : Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday lashed out at an Israeli military operation in Gaza City and termed it as “a massacre and mass execution.”
“We can’t remain silent before the crimes of killing our Palestinian people… such crimes don’t bring any peace,” Abbas told reporters in Ramallah.
During an Israeli ground operation in eastern Gaza City, which started early on Tuesday morning and lasted till around noon, 16 people were killed and more than 45 others were wounded.
Israeli troops used machine-gun fire and tank shells to press ahead in a bid to crush militants who rushed to the area to confront the invading forces.
Most of the casualties were militants, hospital sources said.
Among the dead was Hamas militant Hussam Zahar, son of Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas leader in Gaza City.
Meanwhile, the acting Palestinian government based in the West Bank city of Ramallah also condemned the Israeli incursion as “a cruel aggression.”
The government, led by Salam Fayyad, said in a statement that it had expressed its sympathy over the phone with Zahar, former foreign minister and a member of the parliament.
The phone call came shortly after Zahar accused the government of giving cover to the Israeli raid as it targeted the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
After Hamas wrestled control of the Gaza Strip by force from security forces loyal to President Abbas in mid June, Abbas sackedthe Hamas-led coalition government and tasked Fayyad to form a new one in the West Bank.
For its part, the deposed Hamas-led government considered the Israeli offensive as a result of the resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
“The Israeli occupation takes benefit from the talks to commit more massacres and kill Palestinians as many as possible… this is what we have been warning against,” said Taher al-Nounou, spokesman for the Hamas administration in Gaza.
“What happened today is a new lesson and we hope the Palestinian negotiators will learn the lesson and stop the negotiations immediately,” al-Nounou added.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met in Jerusalem on Monday to tackle the most protruding final status issues, including sovereignty of Jerusalem, borders of a future Palestinian state, Jewish settlements and the fate of the Palestinian refugees.