EU voices "shock" at Israel artillery strikes in Gaza

dpa German Press Agency
Published: Wednesday November 8, 2006

Brussels/Helsinki- The European Union said it was "shocked" and "appalled" at Israel's deadly artillery strikes in northern Gaza which killed at least 19 Palestinians, including five women and seven children. Finland, current holder of the EU presidency, issued a statement saying it was "appalled at the continuing killing of civilians due to the ongoing Israeli operation in Gaza."

It urged "Israel to end its military action in Gaza" and called on "the Palestinians to stop firing rockets onto the Israeli side."

The Finnish EU presidency said that "the spiral of violence will only have serious consequences for the security and political situation in the region."

Earlier, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said Israel had a right to defend itself but warned that this was "not at the price of the lives of the innocent."

"It is very important for all parties to exercise utmost restraint and limit themselves to actions which are proportionate and in accordance with international humanitarian law," said Ferrero- Waldner.

The commissioner said the killing of so many civilians in Gaza, including many children, was a "profoundly shocking event."

"At this critical juncture all sides have a responsibility to give dialogue a chance," she urged.

© 2006 dpa German Press Agency

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GAZA CITY (CNN) -- Hamas' exiled political leader has vowed to retaliate after Israeli troops killed 19 Palestinian civilians, many of them women and children, during a military operation in northern Gaza, according to Palestinian medical sources.

"I call upon all resistance factions to activate their resistance programs," Khaled Mashaal said at a news conference in Syria, according to a translation from The Associated Press.

"The cowardly act of Zionists (Israelis) requires a legitimate Palestinian action. "We have big trust in our military wings, which will reply on this aggression and resist occupation and retaliate for those victims."

The bloodshed occurred early Wednesday with Israeli tanks poised just outside the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. The tanks fired 10 artillery rounds into the town's center and killed 19 people, the medical sources said.

Among the dead was a 13-member family which included seven children, the sources said. The other six killed were also civilians, they said.

Hamas' militant wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigade, issued a statement blaming the United States for the killings, and called on all Muslim nations "to teach the American enemy a harsh lesson."

"America provides the political material and logistical cover for the crimes of the Zionist occupation (Israel) and it is responsible, before the occupation (Israel), for the massacre of Beit Hanoun," the statement said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, of the moderate Fatah party, called Wednesday's action "villainous massacres, savage massacres which Israel commits against the Palestinian people," according to an AP translation.

"Our people can't be any more patient, we have to raise our voice in front of the world," Abbas said, calling on the United Nations, the European Union, Russia and the United States to condemn the actions.
Israel criticized

Officials from the U.N., Britain and the EU quickly criticized Israel's action.

U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Alvaro de Soto urged the "Palestinian side" to stop attacking Israelis.

In his statement, de Soto said he was "deeply shocked and appalled" by the Israeli military action earlier in the day that killed "a score of civilians including many women and children."

The statement comes a week after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed his "deep concern" regarding the rising death toll caused by military operations in northern Gaza.

EU's external relations chief Benita Ferrero-Waldner described the attack on Wednesday morning as a "profoundly shocking event."

EU Foreign Policy chief Javier Solana offered his condolences to the families of the Palestinian civilians killed and to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

"It is high time to break the cycle of violence that I condemn in the strongest terms," Solana said in a written statement.

He called on the resumption of dialogue between the ruling Hamas party and Abbas' moderate Fatah party.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said she was "gravely disturbed" by the reported deaths, and urged Israel to "respect its obligation to avoid harming civilians."

"It is hard to see what this action was meant to achieve and how it can be justified," she added in her statement.

She also said rocket attacks by Palestinian militants "are also unacceptable" and called on both sides to abide by international humanitarian law "and to do their utmost to avoid harming civilians, especially children."
Talks on hold

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz later in the day expressed their regret over the civilian deaths, a government spokesman said.

Olmert ordered an "urgent investigation" into the matter and halted artillery fire in Gaza until the investigation was complete, the spokesman added.

IDF confirmed it had "fired preventative artillery" at rocket launch sites in Beit Hanoun to "disrupt and thwart the launching of Qassam rockets." More than 10 Qassam rockets were launched from the area into Israel in the past day, according to the IDF.

Two of those rockets landed in the Israeli town of Sderot, wounding one civilian.

The IDF said initial reports indicated the artillery fire was fired "at a location distant from the one reportedly hit," but added that the military was investigating the incident.

Israel also said an anti-tank missile was fired at an Israeli force east of Jabalya refugee camp, just south of Beit Hanoun.

The Israeli offensive in northern Gaza resumed mere hours after the Israel Defense Forces announced its withdrawal from Beit Hanoun Tuesday, ending a week-long offensive aimed at rooting out militants who have been firing rockets into southern Israel.

More than 50 Palestinians, most of them militants, have been killed in the operation, according to AP.

It is the largest military operation since Israeli troops stormed into Gaza following the June 25 abduction of Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit by Palestinian militants in Gaza. Negotiations to secure his release had been ongoing before Wednesday's killings.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar recently said Shalit's life could be in danger if Israel continued its operation in Gaza.

Talks between Hamas and Fatah regarding a Palestinian Authority unity government were put on hold in the wake of the Beit Hanoun killings, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said.

Haniyeh called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to address "continuous aggression" against the Palestinian people.

CNN's Ben Wedeman contributed to this report.

Copyright 2006 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Hamas leader calls off Israel cease-fire

By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer 25 minutes ago

BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip - Hamas' exiled leader on Wednesday called off a cease-fire with
Israel and militants threatened to attack Americans after 18 members of a family, including eight children, were killed in an Israeli artillery barrage on a densely populated Gaza neighborhood.

It was the highest number of Palestinian civilians killed in a single strike since fighting erupted six years ago, and undermined Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's attempts to form a more moderate government and renew a peace process with Israel.

Abbas condemned the "terrible, despicable crime," and the international community criticized the deaths. Israel, promising a swift inquiry, expressed regret for harming civilians.

The shelling occurred early Wednesday as residents were sleeping in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, the focus of a weeklong military offensive aimed at stopping rocket fire. Israeli troops had pulled out of the town just 24 hours earlier, and the rocket attacks resumed almost immediately.

The Israeli shells landed around a compound of four apartment buildings on a small side street. The explosions left holes in the buildings, owned by four brothers from the al-Athamna family, and sent panicked residents scurrying outside. Additional salvos landed, hitting the people and flooding a dusty alleyway in a pool of blood.

"Shells were fired directly onto the people who were rushing out of the house," said Akram al-Athamna, a relative of the victims. "There was blood everywhere."

Another family member, 14-year-old Asma al-Athamna, said she saw her mother, older sister and brother-in-law die as they fled their home. "I was behind them and I was wounded," the weeping girl said from her hospital bed. Her 2-year-old niece, Malak, lay in an adjacent bed, recovering from shrapnel wounds to her face.

The family is prominent in Beit Hanoun and includes several doctors and professionals. Family members said they had fled during the Israeli offensive, returning home after Tuesday's pullout.

Bits of dismembered bodies were plastered to walls of the damaged buildings and lying on the ground. A woman's head scarf, children's boots and slippers, and a pair of jeans — all burnt — were strewn outside.

Weeping relatives gathered outside the homes. One man dipped his hand in victims' blood and smeared it over his face. "God avenge us, God avenge us," he wailed.

A young man, standing in the bloodied alleyway, said an infant girl had been blown to pieces. "I tried to look for her head, I tried to look for her head," he shrieked, then sank to the ground, weeping.

Health workers said some 60 people were wounded, including 26 children.

In Damascus,
Syria, Khaled Mashaal, the exiled leader of Hamas, said the group would no longer honor a February 2005 truce and called for renewed attacks on Israel. He urged other militant groups to join the struggle.

"The armed struggle is free to resume, and the resistance is dictated by local circumstances," he told a news conference. "There must be a roaring reaction so that we avenge all those victims." Other major militant groups pledged to follow suit.

The declarations raised the prospect of a new wave of suicide bombings and large-scale fighting with Israel. Although violence has persisted since the truce declaration, including the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Hamas-linked militants in June, there has been a sharp drop in fighting. Hamas has not carried out a suicide bombing since August 2004, after killing scores of Israelis in such attacks over the previous four years.

Despite the rhetoric, Hamas would be taking a gamble by resuming large-scale violence. The group won legislative elections this year and has been struggling to win international legitimacy. Already boycotted by the U.S., Europe and Israel, Hamas would risk further international isolation.

Perhaps with this in mind, Hamas leaders in Gaza quickly distanced themselves from a call by the group's military wing for Muslims around the world to strike at "the American enemy." Hamas has historically confined attacks to Israeli targets.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed regret at the loss of civilian life and offered humanitarian aid.

"The unintentional tragedy that happened today in Beit Hanoun is one that the Israel Defense Forces will investigate to make sure that such events do not recur," said Miri Eisin, Olmert's spokeswoman.

She said, however, that Israel would press on with its efforts to halt Palestinian rocket attacks. She also dismissed the latest Hamas threats, saying militants have continually tried to attack Israelis. Six rockets landed in Israel on Wednesday, wounding two people, the army said.

Initial findings showed that the army had fired artillery at a target some 500 yards away from the residential area.

"Our estimate is that it was something connected with the aiming devices, or the alignment, or the balance between them, or our radar's location of the shell hit," Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant, head of Israel's southern command, told Channel 2 TV. "Our investigation is concentrating on these points," he said.

In Gaza, Abbas said the killings jeopardized peace prospects. "We tell the Israelis, you are not seeking peace at all, but are destroying all chances for peace. You must therefore bear all the consequences of these crimes," he told Palestine TV.

However, Abbas also criticized the Palestinian rocket launchers, saying they invited tough Israeli reprisals. "We are against those that justify Israeli actions," he said. Hamas angrily accused Abbas of caving in to Israeli pressure.

After the attack, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas suspended talks with Abbas on forming a coalition government. Abbas has been pushing Hamas to join his
Fatah movement in a moderate unity government in hopes of ending a painful international aid boycott against the Palestinian government.

But later, in a rare gesture of unity, the rival leaders visited victims in a Gaza hospital together and donated blood. Both men also declared three-day mourning periods throughout the
West Bank and Gaza.

The civilian deaths drew swift condemnations around the world. France and Russia warned of an escalation of hostilities, and the British foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, said "it was hard to see what this action was meant to achieve and how it can be justified."

White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the Bush administration deeply regretted the loss of life. "We call on all parties to show restraint so as to avoid any harm to innocent civilians," he said.

Spontaneous demonstrations erupted across Gaza and the West Bank. Black smoke billowed into the skies of northern Gaza as protesters set tires ablaze. A mass funeral was expected Thursday.

Israeli police, fearing revenge attacks, stepped up their alert level, mobilizing forces across the country.

In separate fighting Wednesday, Israeli troops killed four Palestinian militants in northern Gaza. And in the West Bank, Israeli forces ambushed a group of Palestinian gunmen, killing four militants. A 30-year-old civilian also died in the shootout.

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