-Caveat Lector- http://www.wired.com/news/reuters/story?story_id=20021017RTINTERNATIONAL-MIDEAST-DC
Israeli Tank Shells Kill Six Palestinians in Camp Nidal al-Mughrabi 2002-10-17 19:10:00 RAFAH, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Israeli tank shelling killed at least six Palestinians and wounded 50 in a Gaza Strip refugee camp on Thursday after gunmen fired at army bulldozers, aggravating tensions that are already close to boiling point. Palestinian medics said two other people were feared dead in the wreckage of a house destroyed in the Rafah refugee camp. Witnesses said dismembered bodies of two women, two youths and a 10-year-old girl were pulled from the rubble of homes. Ambulance workers, ducking at the sound of gunfire, frantically wove through narrow alleys trying to reach the wounded. A school operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which serves Palestinian refugees, and another run by the Palestinian Authority were hit by heavy machine gun rounds from Israeli tanks, UNRWA said in a statement. Pupils in the UNRWA preparatory boys' school had to be moved to a basement for safety, it said. A tank shell struck an annex housing the school's laboratory as well but children there had already gone home and there were no injuries. The army expressed "regret at the loss of innocent lives" but a senior commander said troops had fired in self-defense after being shot at while using bulldozers to build a new watchtower at an army base in the area. There were no reports of Israeli casualties. The violence undermined U.S. demands for calm in the Middle East as it seeks Arab support for possible war on Iraq. It erupted after President Bush put those demands to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at talks in Washington. DIALOGUE SUFFERS The bloodshed also set back any hopes raised by the first high-level meeting between Palestinian and Israeli officials for several weeks. The talks in Jerusalem late on Wednesday produced no breakthrough. Palestinian medics and witnesses said a total of six bodies were recovered from a cluster of houses smashed by Israeli shells. "We have six martyrs," said Ali Moussa, director of the Rafah hospital, using the term to describe Palestinians killed in the uprising for independence in Gaza and the West Bank. "We have 50 people wounded. Most, if not all, are in critical condition," he said. Witnesses said both the dead and wounded were civilians. Israeli bulldozers had come under fire from Palestinian gunmen near the border fence, the army said. Rafah, on Gaza's southern border with Egypt, has been a frequent flashpoint of violence in the uprising and is seen by Israel as a militant stronghold. Israel often uses bulldozers to destroy houses there, saying they are used as cover for gunmen. "Palestinian terrorists fired an anti-tank rocket at an army unit that operated in the area and troops returned fire, targeting the attackers," it said in a statement. The Palestinian Authority denounced what it called "the massacre" in Rafah and renewed its call for international protection for Palestinians, a request opposed by Israel. Peter Hansen, commissioner-general of UNRWA, said he was dismayed by the civilian deaths and damage to the schools. "This is another case of disproportionate force being used against civilian targets, including schools full of children," he said. Israel has recently stepped up raids on Gaza militants spearheading the revolt that began in September 2000 after talks on Palestinian statehood in the West Bank and Gaza failed. The United States has criticized such raids when civilians have been killed and has demanded Israel ease the hardships of civilians living under curfews and blockades since it reoccupied West Bank cities after a wave of suicide bombings. HIGH-LEVEL TALKS The violence in Rafah began hours after Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat met in Jerusalem, signaling a desire by both sides to at least maintain dialogue. They discussed more Israeli troop withdrawals from the West Bank, following a pullout from the city of Bethlehem in August, and the release of tax revenues and other funds owed to the Palestinians but withheld by Israel since the uprising started. Israel is considering removing troops from Hebron. "It was decided that expanded teams from the two sides will meet early next week," a Palestinian official said. Israel's Foreign Ministry called it a "preparatory meeting." In Washington, a senior Israeli official told reporters after Sharon met Bush that Israel would not scale back military actions against militants and had not been asked to do so. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns will take stock of the situation during a two-week trip to the Middle East starting Friday after a meeting in Paris with other mediators. Despite the flurry of meetings, there is little hope of a quick end to the bloodshed, in which at least 1,622 Palestinians and 604 Israelis have been killed in the past two years. Copyright � 2002 Reuters Limited. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. 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