Some 20 Palestinians were injured in an Israeli bombardment against Rafah

Palestinian medical sources said that at least 20 Palestinians were injured, three of them are in critical health conditions, in an Israeli missile bombardment against the city of Rafah in Gaza.

One Israeli Apache helicopter fired one missile at a gathering for the Palestinians in al-Shout area which borders Egypt. Palestinian sources said that four houses were destroyed in the Israeli raid.

News reports in Gaza said that the occupation forces banned thousands of Palestinians from entering and moving between the north of Gaza and its south and they are holding scores of private and public cars and harassing and inspecting the Palestinians, noting that they prevented cameras from depicting what is taking place in Rafah camp.

The reports said that the incursion operation started with 40 Israeli tanks and military vehicle on Wednesday after mid night in al-Sho'out area and its surroundings.

Witnesses said that the Israeli bulldozers demolished several houses and leveled vast areas of lands on the border strip, while they said that security men fired explosives and damaged one Israeli bulldozer. On Wednesday evening, the occupation forces detained other 12 Palestinians in the West Bank and also destroyed three houses in Bethlehem area and near Toulkarem owned by Palestinians who carried out operations against Israel.

In a later development, the occupation soldiers dismantled two settlement positions in the West Bank and Gaza yesterday early morning and detained 7 settlers who tried to prevent them from that.

At the political level, the secretary general of the UN Kofi Annan criticized the US President George W. Bush over ignoring the hopes of the Palestinians and their desire through his implicit recognition of the Israeli desire to keep certain settlements in the West Bank.