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Five Armed Palestinians and Two Youths Killed in Rafah Shooting Incident; IDF to Continue Gaza Operation

(Ha'aretz) - Amos Harel Seven Palestinians were killed in Rafah on Wednesday - five armed men and two youths - when IDF troops prevented a crowd that included a few dozen armed men from marching on their positions in the Tel Sultan neighborhood, where the IDF had been operating since Tuesday. An Apache helicopter launched warning flares and then fired a missile into an open field, but failed to stop the marchers. Then a tank sent machine gun fire into an open area, and finally it was decided to shoot a few tank shells into an abandoned house near the civilians. The shells were fired as a deterrent and were not aimed directly at the demonstrators. "At no stage of the incident were the demonstrators in the sights of our tanks," a senior officer said. The IDF's inquiry found that the first shells hit the house's wall and probably collapsed it. Altogether four shells were fired and apparently, following the wall's collapse, a shell passed through the house and exploded close to civilians. Palestinian sources at first reported 22 dead. Officers said the Palestinians had "inflated" the number of casualties for a greater international effect, adding civilians who had died of disease to the list of casualties. A senior officer dismissed criticism of using tank shells for deterrence. "This is a war environment, not police work. There is no call to operate crowd-control means there. You can't operate water hoses against a demonstration with armed men."
2004-05-20 00:00:00
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