At Least 13 Palestinians Killed in Israeli Raid

Two other Palestinian militants were killed in the West Bank and the Israeli Army demolished about 16 homes in Gaza as part of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's campaign to crack down on the families of Palestinians accused of participating in attacks on Israeli soldiers or civilians.

The Israeli attacks and the ensuing bloodshed prompted angry charges that Israel was trying to sabotage the new peace initiative, called the "road map," and undermine the credibility of Mahmoud Abbas, the new Palestinian prime minister who took office on Tuesday.

"Our extremists are opposition groups, but the Israeli extremists are operating the government," said Michael Tarazi, a legal adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organization, Yasser Arafat's overall political group. "We cannot control our extremists, but who is going to control the Israeli government?"

David Baker, an official in Sharon's office, said there was no message or ulterior motive in today's military actions. "The only policy we have is that of defending our citizens, and these activities will continue wherever and whenever they are needed, without a connection to other outside considerations."

Recent events underscore Abbas's predicament in seeking to address demands coming from two directions: from the Americans and Israelis, who want him to control Palestinian violence and be a negotiating partner in peace talks, and from the Palestinians, who want him to contain Israeli military operations and end Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Abbas has little sway with either side. Since he agreed to serve as prime minister a week ago, Palestinian militants, who do not recognize his authority, have committed two suicide bombings, killing four Israelis. And since he formally took office two days ago, Israeli military forces have killed at least 22 Palestinians in operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The operation today began at 1:30 a.m. when about 30 60-ton Merkeva tanks, backed by at least three AH-64 Apache helicopter gunships, converged on the Shijaia neighborhood of eastern Gaza City and surrounded the five-story house of Yousef Abu Hein, 32, a reputed bomb specialist for the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas. The group asserted responsibility for a suicide bombing Wednesday in Tel Aviv in which four people, including the bomber, were killed.

Loudspeakers at local mosques blared appeals for Palestinian fighters to grab their arms and rush to defend the neighborhood, local residents said. Dozens of armed men and boys poured into the alleys and streets to wage an intense battle against Israeli tanks firing heavy machine guns and tank shells and Israeli helicopters occasionally firing missiles, witnesses said.

Israeli officials said fighting raged for several hours and then continued more sporadically as soldiers surrounded the house and broadcast orders over loudspeakers for the people inside to surrender. At 1 p.m., the fighters ordered the woman and children out, leaving only Abu Hein and two of his brothers, Mahmoud and Aiman, inside. At about 5 p.m., they said, the last of the brothers died when he stepped onto a balcony and opened fire and was shot by Israeli troops, who afterward demolished the house.

At least 13 people were killed during the incursion, according to Palestinian security and hospital officials, including Amir Ayyad, 2, who was shot in the head when he wandered to a window in his family's neighboring home to peek outside, according to his father. The other fatalities, including two 13-year-old boys, were from gunshot wounds, hospital officials reported, except for a Hamas activist, Naem Naem, 17, who was killed when a landmine he was laying exploded, according to a statement from group.

Hospital officials said about 40 Palestinians were injured. Israeli military officials said seven Israeli soldiers were injured, one seriously and two moderately.

Residents from the neighborhood who gathered at a local hospital complained that Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, had declared in his first speech two days ago that he intended to take unauthorized weapons out of the hands of the people, but that there was no Palestinian army or militia to protect them from such Israeli attacks. Furious Palestinians called him a "traitor" and demanded that he resign.

"I just want to ask Abu Mazen to come to our neighborhood and experience what we've experienced, and I'm sure that if he saw what has happened to us, he would never put his hand in a Jew's hand," said a woman who said she lived across the street from the house under siege today and described herself as a friend of the Hamas activist killed by the landmine.

"It's a map, but the road is to Israel. It is not a road to a Palestinian state," said a 70-year-old woman outside the Abu Hein house, referring to the new peace plan. She refused to give her name but said she was the brothers' aunt.

"Palestinian people will not think in any positive way toward the new government's attempts to control weapons when they are still subject to continuing aggression and attacks and when no one else can protect them," said Ziad Abu Amr, a reformist lawmaker from Gaza who is Abbas' culture minister.

"All these attacks are totally unwarranted at a time when the Palestinians are trying to send a message of peace to Israel by talking about reforming security organizations and establishing the rule of law and talking about the possibilities of the road map," he said. "But what do we get from the Israeli government? These stabs in the back. People are already questioning the utility of going back to the track of peace and looking into other alternatives."

The road map, released Wednesday by a group called the Quartet that includes the United States, Russia, European Union and United Nations, calls for the Palestinians to take control of their own security, collect weapons and dismantle terrorist organizations in order to stop violence against Israelis. If successful, the Palestinians would be rewarded with an independent, sovereign state by 2005.



© 2003 The Washington Post Company