Israeli tank shells kill 18 Palestinians

Israeli soldiers at a staging area in Kibbutz Mefalsim, just outside the northern Gaza Strip, November 7, 2006. (Ammar Awad/Reuters)

November 8, 2006

By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer

BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip - Israeli tank shells landed in a residential neighborhood north of the town of Beit Hanoun early Wednesday, killing at least 18 people in their sleep, Palestinian witnesses and officials said.

According to witnesses, all those killed were women and children.

Palestinian hospital officials said dozens of wounded people were being treated at four Gaza hospitals.

Hundreds gathered outside the Kamal Adwan hospital, weeping as bodies arrived. Witnesses said that many of the dead arrived in their sleeping clothes.

Schoolchildren swept out to the street to protest the attack as mosques broadcast angry speeches on the street.

Rahwi Hamad, 75, said he was awakened by the sound of explosions at about 5:15 a.m. and emerged from his home to find bodies and blood in the streets.

"I saw people coming out of the house, bleeding and screaming. I carried a girl covered with blood," he said. "Inside the houses, we evacuated dismembered bodies ... Everything was disgusting. This is the worst, bloody scene I have ever seen."

Khaled Radi, a health ministry official, said that, of the 18 dead, seven were children and 13 were from the same family. He said at least 40 more were wounded, all civilians.

Palestinian security officials said that five tank shells landed in the area within 15 minutes.

The Palestinian cabinet announced it would convene for an emergency meeting to discuss the "massacre."

The Israeli army did not comment.

The shelling came after Israeli attacks in Gaza and the West Bank killed at least 15 people following a pullout from the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun at the end of a bloody weeklong sweep.


Update:

Family members mourn their dead at a Gaza morgue following an Israeli tank attack on the town of Beit Hanoun. Photograph: Khalil Hamra/AP


Hamas chief: Truce with Israel is over

Children among 19 killed by Israeli tank fire

Mourners carry the bodies of 5 dead Palestinians during their funeral in the West Bank village of Yamoun near Jenin Wednesday Nov. 8, 2006. Israeli forces ambushed a group of Palestinian militants in Yamoun early Wednesday, killing four, Palestinian security officials said. During the gun battle that ensued a 30-year-old civilian man who went out to a rooftop to see what happened was shot and killed, security and medical officials said. The military said it was checking the report.(AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)