Gaza bleeds as Israeli offensive escalates

Israel's latest offensive against the Palestinian Territories may last for weeks. By Monday 4 October, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since the tanks and troops invaded densely populated Gaza on Tuesday 27 September has reached 70.

The European Union was on Tuesday urged by Sinn Féin to suspend preferential trade with Israel in a bid to stop more bloodshed in the Middle East.

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams also appealed to Dublin's new Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern to use his influence to end the violence as the Palestinian death toll continues to rise.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has vowed that the offensive will continue, despite the increasing number of innocent civilians being killed and injured by the army's indiscriminate aggression.

In the latest incident, a 13-year-old Palestinian girl, Iman al-Hams, was shot from an Israeli army observation tower in the Tel Sultan neighbourhood of Rafah.

Palestinian doctors said she was hit 20 times — five times in the head — while she walked to school.

Israeli radio said soldiers opened fire when children entered an area "banned" to Palestinians. Troops claimed the girl was shot when the schoolbag she threw away was mistaken for a bomb.

The offensive in northern Gaza initially concentrated in the Jabalya refugee camp, which was occupied by nearly 200 tanks and armoured vehicles and gathered momentum again late on Sunday 3 October, when about 25 tanks moved into Bait Hanun, the town closest to the Israeli border and the town of Sderot across the fence. About 15,000 people living in the area of the raid have been without water and electricity for days.

The attack against Jabalya has been described as deadly by the inhabitants of the camp. Armoured bulldozers tore up roads and demolished homes, citrus orchards, a clothing factory and a kindergarten, witnesses said. The army claims it is destroying cover used for firing rockets at Israeli targets across the fence. Palestinians call it collective punishment.

Gunbattles subsided somewhat in Jabalya as the army tightened its grip and Israeli drones buzzed overhead to direct fire. Residents in the town of 100,000 said they were terrified.

"We are short of water and food. Children cannot sleep because of the gunfire," said farmer Hassan Abu Ahmad, a father of seven, who was hiding at his home in eastern Jabalya.

"The number of civilian victims exceeds by far the number of resistance fighters killed. As for the injured, I can say that 99% of them are innocent men, women and children who had no connection with the hostilities," said Isa Dhahir, deputy mayor of Jabalya.

In an interview with Aljazeera.net on Sunday, Dhahir accused the Israeli army of "knowingly and deliberately" targeting civilians, particularly children.

"An army that is equipped with state-of-the art technology can easily distinguish between combatants and non-combatants. An army that can strike and assassinate a person driving in a small car through a crowded street can easily distinguish children and women from resistance fighters."

An Israeli military spokesman acknowledged that "some civilians" were killed but said the Israeli policy was to refrain "as much as possible" from targeting civilians.

The spokesman, Eitan Arusi, said that with the exception of some ten civilians and a 65-year-old man, all Palestinians killed in northern Gaza were in their 20s and 30s.

Arusi gave no answer, however, when asked if Israeli military policy considered every Palestinian male in the 20-40 age bracket a legitimate target just because he happened to be of an age typically associated with military recruitment.

However, the Israeli military's respect for the life of civilians may be measured by the apology issued by the commander of an Israeli brigade in Gaza, who admitted that Israeli troops fired a tank shell at a "group of people" in retaliation for an ambush on an armoured Israeli bulldozer.

On Friday 1 October, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported the army had been instructed to be a little bit "light on the trigger" in order to punish the Palestinians and consequently force them to rise up against the resistance fighters.

The aim of the operation is for Israel to gain control of a further 9km buffer area in Gaza under the excuse of keeping Israeli towns out of rage of possible Palestinian rockets, and Sharon has pledged to expand the area even further if he deems it necessary.

On Tuesday, Gerry Adams said the international community had to do everything in its power to help bring about a peaceful solution to the conflict.

"The latest incursions into Palestinian territory by Israeli forces are to be condemned," the West Belfast MP said.

"Sinn Féin is unequivocal. The suicide attacks, the killing of civilians, the invasion by Israel of Palestinian territory and the deliberate targeting for assassination of Palestinian leaders must end.

"I am calling upon the new Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern to use his influence, and that of the government to assist in the search for peace in the Middle East.

"Minister Ahern should make the resolution of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict a foreign policy priority during his term in office.

"I am also calling upon the EU to support the suspension of preferential trade with Israel until the occupation of Palestinian territory ceases.

"It is imperative that Israel engages in genuine negotiation and dialogue with the Palestinian people and there is a clear role for the international community to help in such a process."

Adams also urged the international community through the UN to do everything it could to end the violence.

Last week, the Sinn Féin president appeared on Al-Jazeera television to appeal for the release of British hostage Kenneth Bigley in Iraq.

The Palestinian Authority has slammed the inaction of the international community, which again has failed to tackle Israel's actions against the Palestinian population. I believe the lack of proper American and international reaction will be translated by the Israelis to further escalations," saidd Saib Uraiqat, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Uraiqat blamed the US for the escalation, saying: "It is cost-free to blame the Palestinians but it is not cost-free to blame the Israelis. This is the imbalance in the Israeli-Palestinian relationship."

On Sunday 3 October, five days into the Israeli attack against Palestine, the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan found time to call on Israel "to halt its military incursions into the Gaza Strip". His call arrived too late for the victims and, again, was ignored by the Israeli government.

The statement from a UN spokesman added: "The secretary-general likewise calls on the Palestinian Authority to take action to halt the firing of rockets against Israeli targets by Palestinian militants."

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has referred to Israel's campaign as a "monstrous, criminal, inhumane attack on our people". He called on "the entire world to act immediately and rapidly to stop the criminal and racist" attack.