Israeli troops invade Gaza killing seven Palestinians

Thursday July 05, 2007 09:24 by Vasilena Todorova - IMEMC News

Israeli troops invaded Gaza on Thursday morning killing five Hamas resistance fighters and two civilians.

Palestinian medical sources in Gaza identified the seven killed as: Mohamed Siam, 35, Ahmad Al Kirtawi, 20, Mohamed Al Ewidat, 23, and one unidentified fighter, all from Al Qassam brigade, the armed wing of Hamas, and two cilivians -- Mohamed Mansour,22, and another man, whose name is still unknown.

At least 13 other Palestinian, among them children, were wounded in the attack, according to hospital officials. A Hamas cameraman, injured by what some witnesses said was a tank shell, was later shot in the legs from afar as he lay on the ground.

The Israeli army invaded central Gaza and instigated clashes with Palestinian resistance fighters in al-Maghazi and Bureij refugee camps.

Palestinian ambulance worker Azmi Abu Dalal said Israeli forces seized him and several colleagues in the camp when they tried to evacuate a wounded Palestinian man from a security post Hamas fighters had been using and which the army took over, according to reports. Abu Dalal said soldiers took them to a nearby house and then used them as human shields to exit the area. Israeli and international laws ban armies from using human shields. An Israeli tank also destroyed Abu Dalal's ambulance.

Hamas fighters encountered an underground Israeli unit in the area and opened fire, according to Hamas spokesperson Abu Obaida. Witnesses reported that Israeli troops invaded the Palestinian territory backed up by tanks, bulldozers and aircrafts and surrounded the camps, while Palestinian fighters took positions on rooftops.

Hamas, the Islamist faction that seized Gaza last month after expelling Fatah, the Western-backed Palestinian faction of president Mahmoud Abbas, gained some international approval yesterday for organizing the release of BBC journalist Alan Johnston who was kidnapped in Gaza for nearly four months by a radical group linked to Al-Qaeda.

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