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3 children among 19 dead in Gaza Lebanon Daily Star | July 27 2006 Israeli forces killed 19 Palestinians in fighting across Gaza Wednesday, including three children and a disabled man, medics and witnesses said. Medics said most of the bodies brought into hospital after the attacks were torn to pieces, as paramedics took at least 45 wounded people, including two journalists working for Palestine TV, away for treatment. The fighting began before dawn when about 50 Israeli tanks and bulldozers drove into northern Gaza, flattening orchards and greenhouses to deprive militants firing rockets of cover, the army said. Troops also took over the rooftops of several houses, residents said. Most of those killed were hit by tank fire, air strikes and in clashes with Israeli troops in fighting in eastern Gaza City. Another militant was killed in northern Gaza by an artillery shell. In a new tactic, aircraft also blasted several houses of Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists after warning people to leave. Homeowners said they received phone calls from people speaking broken Arabic and telling them to get out. Twelve of those killed Wednesday were identified as militants, including six from Hamas, five from Islamic Jihad and one from the Popular Resistance Committees, the groups said. A 3-year-old girl was also killed in the clash, hospital officials said. Later, two more dead militants were brought to the hospital from the same area, officials said. It was not clear what groups they belonged to. In a separate incident in northern Gaza, a 5-year-old girl and her 8-month-old sister where killed when an artillery shell landed on their house, hospital officials said. Initially, medics said one of the girls was 9. The army said it was checking the report. At least 40 people were wounded, 10 were in critical condition, including Ibrahim al-Atla, 25, a cameraman for the Palestine Broadcasting Corp., who was hit with shrapnel in the back, said Dr. Jumaa al-Saqqa, a Shifa Hospital official. "This is a horrible situation, and we urge the international community to notice the continuing Israeli escalation in Gaza immediately," Palestinian lawmaker Saeb Erekat said. "I'm afraid these numbers are going to multiply if we continue to be the forgotten zone in this region." Khader Habib, a leader of Islamic Jihad in Gaza, said his group would respond to the latest deaths with rocket attacks and suicide bombings. Also Wednesday, several Israeli tanks and bulldozers crossed into Gaza's Abassan region near the southern town of Khan Younis, witnesses said. Just before the force entered, an Israeli helicopter dropped leaflets warning residents to stay indoors because the army was carrying out an operation against cells firing rockets into Israel, witnesses said. The latest violence flared as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas began a our of Arab nations to hold talks on the situation in the Occupied Territories. He met with King Abdullah II of Jordan and is expected to hold talks with Algerian President Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Saudi King Abdullah. Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert rejected demands by militants to free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit, but said he might consider it later to help Abbas. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Olmert seemed to be signaling a softening of opposition to a prisoner exchange. "Olmert's comments represented a beginning of a retreat in the Israeli position," he said. In other developments, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyya, members of his Cabinet and the security services they control received part of their unpaid salaries this week from Abbas' office, officials said Wednesday. - Agencies ---------------------------------------------------
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