GAZA: Israeli army withdraws after a Gaza city raid kills 11 Palestinians

Nine members of Hamas were among eleven Palestinians killed in a raid by Israeli troops in Gaza. The Israeli army has pulled out of the outskirts of Gaza city after a raid that left eleven Palestinians dead. Troops and tanks had entered an area close to the Maghazi refugee camp in the search, they said, for militants involved in attacks on Israel. Nine of those who died were identified as members of Hamas. One civilian was also killed. Israeli forces exchanged fire with gunmen in Maghazi refugee camp, and some militants said they fired rocket-propelled grenades at the troops. On Friday (July 6) residents of Maghazi refugee camp were inspecting the damage after a day of battles. One Palestinian ambulance was crushed by an Israeli bulldozer. A local resident, Abed Barah, described how the ambulance was destroyed. He then said the medics inside were taken by the Israelis to a house, tied up and beaten, before being released. Medics said 10 Palestinian militants and a civilian were killed and 20 people, including children, were wounded. A Hamas cameraman had both his legs amputated after being caught in crossfire as he lay on the ground. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister dismissed by President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, cndemned what he called Israel's "military escalation" and "criminal massacre". Haniyeh said Palestinian gunmen had the right to respond. Israel withdrew its forces from Gaza in 2005 but has pressed ahead with periodic raids aimed at halting rocket fire at the Jewish state, since Hamas's rout of Western-backed Abbas's Fatah group last month. An army spokeswoman said soldiers had carried out a routine raid about a kilometre (half-mile) inside Gaza to search for militants, including those involved in rocket attacks against Israel, and to find tunnels used to smuggle weapons.

ITN Source | July 6, 2007

Tags:. .battles. .left. .taken. .residents. .caught