(from my e-mail)
Dear Friends, I have included below both the Ynet and Ha’aretz updates, because both are needed to get a full picture, which probably will be updated to more killed and injured later.
I WANT TO SAY LOUDLY AND CLEARLY TO ISRAEL’S MINISTER OF DEFENSE AND ISRAEL’S PRIME MINISTER: THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO PEACE! THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO SECURITY!
Of course, it has been too quiet on the Israeli front for these people and their followers. They need action so as to be able to justify killing more Palestinians, injuring more. When will the world stop these maniacs? The radio news just now (7:00 PM; 19:00) just reported that 9 were killed, among them 3 small children. Ugly!
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reports that May, 2006 saw 42 Palestinians killed, 178 injured; and June 1-7 witnessed 7 killed and 33 injured. Add to these figures the 9 (or more) killed at the beach shelling, 3 killed earlier in the day, and at least 4 yesterday, and the total for May 1-June9 is at least 65 bloody killings, and many more injuries.
Oh yes, forgot to mention: the radio news and the newspapers both report that Chief of Staff Dan Halutz ordered the shelling stopped, for the time being. Yeah, after shelling a beach where Palestinian families were relaxing and swimming. Nice Halutz. But too late for the dead. OR MAYBE YOU’RE A MAGICIAN AND CAN BRING THEM BACK TO LIFE. And what about the Israelis who might well pay the price for the stupidity of the leaders they elect? Will Halutz et al. bring them back to life?
Dorothy
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3260826,00.html
Hebrew: http://www.ynet.co.il/home/0,7340,L-8,00.html
7 killed by navy artillery shells
[The Ynet Hebrew update reports at least 12 killed! ! Dorothy]
Palestinian sources report 7 Palestinians, including children, killed by artillery shells fired by navy off Gaza coast; Earlier, IAF fires missile at car carrying Qassam cell, killing 3 PRC members
Ali Waked
Seven Palestinians were killed by artillery shells fired from a navy ship off the cost of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources said Friday.
Palestinians said three shells exploded on the Beit Lahiya beach where hundreds of Palestinians bathed.
A Palestinian ambulance driver, Khaled Abu Saada, told Ynet he transported six bodies, including those of two children, a toddler aged one-and-a-half-year and his three-year-old sister, to hospitals in the area.
Abu Saada said three shells exploded on the Beit Lahiya beach while hundreds of Palestinians bathed in the sea.
Shortly after, medical sources said two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike in the northern Gaza Strip. A missile fired by an Israeli helicopter slammed into a car traveling in Beit Lahiya, killing a senior Hamas activist and his companion.
Earlier Friday, three Palestinians were killed in an air strike that targeted a car carrying three members of the Popular Resistance Committees who launched a Qassam rocket at Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces said it attacked the Qassam cell after its members fired a rocket into Israel, lightly wounding one man. A second airstrike then hit the car carrying the cell members as they tried to speed away, killing the three men, the army said.
Palestinian officials, however, said the airstrikes had targeted separate groups several miles apart from one another.
There were no reports of injuries or damage caused by the Palestinian rocket.
The killed Palestinians were identified as Basel Zaanin, his brother Ahmad and Khaled Zaanin, a relative.
On Thursday night, the Israel Defense Forces killed Jamal Abu Samhadana, the man in charge of one of the strongest terror organizations in Gaza, who was appointed as the general supervisor of the Interior Ministry, the ministry responsible for the security organizations.
An aircraft fired four missiles on one of the organization’s training camps. At least four people were killed in a strike planned by the Southern Command and the Israel Air Force, which considered Samhadana to be one of the most wanted Palestinians. He had escaped at least four assassination attempts and has been wanted since the first intifada.
Some 30,000 Palestinians arrived in the Gaza town of Rafah Friday afternoon to attend the funeral of Popular Resistance Committees chief Jamal Abu Samhadana.
At the end of the funeral, a special prayer was expected to be held at the local soccer field. Dozens of gunmen deployed across the city ahead of the funeral.
A Popular Resistance Committees spokesman said during the funeral that the organization has elected a new secretary-general. He added that the organization would not publish the replacement’s name “for security reasons.”
AP contributed to this report
Ha’aretz Update Friday, June 09, 2006
Last update – 18:24 09/06/2006
7 Palestinians killed when IDF shell hits Gaza beach
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/724811.html
Hebrew: http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/724675.html
By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and Agencies
Israel Navy gunboats fired artillery shells at targets in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday, killing seven people on a Gaza beach and wounding at least 40 others, Palestinian medical officials said.
There was no word on whether the injured people were civilians or militants.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that naval boats had been firing artillery. It had no further details.
Earlier Friday, an Israel Air Force strike killed three Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) militants in Beit Hanun, in the Gaza Strip, just minutes after they fired a Qassam rocket into Israel.
IDF sources said that at approximately 3 P.M., the militants fired a rocket that landed in an open field near Sderot. One of the militants, who was standing outside the car, was killed by an IAF missile soon after the rocket launching. The other two men attempted to drive away, but were killed by another missile that hit the moving car.
Security forces had been placed on alert Friday following Palestinian threats to avenge Thursday’s IAF strike that killed Popular Resistance Committee leader Jamal Abu Samhadana, Israel Radio reported.
Abu Samhadana, who also headed the Hamas government’s Interior Ministry security force in the Gaza Strip, was killed in an air strike on a Palestinian militants’ training camp in Gaza. Abu Samhadana was a key player in rocket attacks on Israel and a suspect in the fatal 2003 bombing of a U.S. convoy in the Gaza Strip.
More than ten thousands mourners attended Abu Samhadana’s funeral in Rafah on Friday afternoon. Among the crowd were senior Hamas officials, including spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, Interior Minister Saed Siam and other parliament members. During the funeral, a 19-year-old was lightly injured by ceremonial gunfire.
At least three other PRC operatives were also killed in the attack. Hospital officials said 10 more were wounded.
A PRC spokesman said the group would avenge Abu Samhadana’s death.
“The Zionists and Israelis have opened the gates of hell by assassinating Abu Samhadana,” said PRC spokesman Abu Abir. “The Zionist entity and Zionist settlements near Gaza will not feel security and safety any more. Our rockets will rain into the Zionist entity and our heroes will blow themselves up among their dirty bodies.”
Militants did succeed in launching four Qassam rockets on Friday. Early in the morning two rockets hit Sderot, one of them causing some damage. The other two Qassams landed in open areas later in the day, causing no casualties or damage.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said all the Palestinian organizations have the right to respond to Israeli aggression and that all means were acceptable in harming Israel, Israel Radio reported.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the air strike was an Israeli crime that damages the chances of peace, the radio said.
Security forces decided to go on alert in light of the threats, and were set to increase patrols, add roadblocks and crack down on Palestinians in Israel illegally, according to the report.
IDF: Militants planning large-scale attack
IDF officials refused to comment on whether the attack on the Gaza training camp was a “targeted assassination.”
The IDF did confirm striking the camp, saying militants there were planning a large-scale attack on Israel.
The death of Abu Samhadana, among the prominent leaders in the Gaza Strip, could lead to renewed escalations in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, including active engagement by Hamas in terrorism against Israel.
“This is a criminal assasination and Palestinians have the right to respond to this ugly crime by all means,” said Khaled Abu Hilal, an Interior Ministry spokesman. “Abu Samhadana paid with his life for the freedom and dignity of his people.”
“Israel knows that Abu Samhadana works in the government and by killing him they are sending a message that all its members, from the prime minister to junior employees, are targets for death,” said cabinet secretary Ghazi Hamad.
The strike took place around 11:30 P.M. Palestinian sources in Gaza reported a short while later that Abu Samhadana – who founded the PRC as a Fatah splinter faction at the start of the second intifada in 2000 – was among the four dead operatives.
The attack knocked out electricity in the area, hampering rescue efforts and attempts to ascertain casualties, police said.
Israel says the PRC is responsible for most of the rockets fired at its southern communities, according to Palestinian police.
Five Qassam rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza on Thursday and two more were fired Friday morning.
As word of Abu Samhadana’s death spread, thousands of grieving Palestinians from his hometown of Rafah mobbed the hospital where his body was being held. Many of the mourners wept and fainted, witnesses said.
Abu Samhadana, a 43-year-old explosives expert, had been a key target for Israel, moving stealthily and switching cars and hideouts, despite his promotion to security chief by the Hamas-led government.
In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Samhadana, himself one of the most renowned militants in the Palestinian territories, denied old allegations he was behind the 2003 bombing of a U.S. convoy in Gaza that killed three American security guards.