Eight Palestinians killed, Teiser Khaled was arrested, Mofaz threatens more oppression
Six Palestinians were killed at least belonging to the Palestinian national resistance movement, Hamas, and other three wounded, two of them in critical health conditions when a car loaded with explosives went off near them in a farm in Gaza yesterday
Eye- witnesses said they heard two successive explosions in a small house situated in a walled land in al-Zeitoun quarters, noting that the explosion destroyed a car which was parked near the farm.
One witness said the explosion which took place in the house of a Palestinian from Shaldan family resulted in destroying large part of it.
One of the Hamas leaders, Abdul Aziz al-Ranteisi, said that the five killed Palestinians are members in Ezz Eddine al-Qassam group, the military wing of the Hamas movement, and that Israel is behind their assassination. Al-Ranteisi threatened to reply to the assassination operation. He said "Israel will pay a dear price for this operation."
Meantime, two other Palestinians were killed and eight wounded one in a critical condition by the Israeli bullets in Nablus when an Israeli military unit cordoned a building in the city and opened fire at the Palestinians who tried to challenge the attacking forces.
The Israeli forces also threatened four houses in Rafah and demolished vast areas in Beit Lahia, Rafah, and Huker al-Jame in Deir al-Balah and tightened the siege against the West Bank and Gaza and arrested three citizens of Hebron and Beitonia on charge of belonging to the Fatah movement and Teisir Khaled a member of the executive committee of the PLO in Nablus.
Meanwhile, the Israeli defense minister Shaoul Mofaz continued his threats against the Palestinians, using the operation carried out by the Palestinians on Saturday and resulted in killing four Israeli soldiers in Gaza as a pretext to escalate oppression acts against the Palestinians.
Mofaz said during a session for the Israeli cabinet yesterday that his army will direct strong strikes aiming in particular at the infrastructure of the Hamas movement which claimed responsibility for the operation.