GAZA: Several thousands march in Gaza in funeral Palestinians killed in ongoing Israeli offensive

Several thousands marched in a funeral procession on Wednesday (August 30) for three Palestinian gunmen and two civilians killed in an ongoing Israeli offensive in Gaza. The latest casualties in the Shijaia neighbourhood raised to 11 the number of Palestinians killed over the past 24 hours in Israeli attacks on what they say are militants in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank. An Israeli army spokeswoman said soldiers shot four gunmen in Shijaia, including two who had fired anti-tank missiles at them. Medics said five militants and two civilians were killed by Israeli fire. A senior leader of Islamic Jihad, Hosam Jaradat, died in a Jordanian hospital on Wednesday from wounds suffered during a raid by an Israeli undercover unit in the West Bank city of Jenin last week, the militant group said. The Israeli army has killed at least 200 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, in the Gaza Strip since starting an offensive in the territory after gunmen abducted a soldier in a cross-border raid on June 25. Israel pulled troops and settlers out of Gaza last year after 38 years of occupation. In a statement, the army said it had uncovered a 150-metre (490 ft)-long tunnel stretching from the Gaza Strip towards the Karni commercial goods terminal on the border with Israel. "The tunnel was intended to be used (for) a large-scale terror attack, apparently against the crossing itself," the statement said, noting that Israel has closed Karni intermittently over the past months "as part of activity to thwart such attempts". Aid groups say the closures at Karni -- most recently the crossing has been shut since Aug. 15 -- have worsened humanitarian conditions in densely populated Gaza, home to 1.4 million people. The army said the tunnel entrance was found inside a house in Shijaia.

ITN Source | August 30, 2006

Tags:. .recently. .several. .marched. .leader. .west