Israeli forces killed at least 59 Palestinians and wounded over 150 during clashes in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, medical sources reported. With this latest death toll, over 70 Palestinians have been killed in four days of Israeli raids and air strikes on the Gaza Strip.
According to Reuters, witnesses said clashes started on Saturday when Palestinian fighters spotted an Israeli force backed by helicopters that had entered the Hamas-led territory. At least two Israeli troops killed and five were wounded in this clash around the crowded Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip.
At least half of Saturday's victims were civilians, hospital staff said. A baby and two teenagers were among the dead, reports said. Hamas said the baby, Malak Karfaneh, died just before midnight Friday in an Israeli strike on Beit Hanoun. Two of the dead Palestinian children have been identified as Jaqueline Abu-Shbak, 12, and her brother Iyad Abu-Shbak. The civilians included also an unidentified child, a 17-year-old girl and her 16-year-old brother, a 45-year-old man and his 20-year-old son, and two sisters thought to be in their early 20s.
Dr. Mousa Abu Marzouk, the deputy political chairman of Hamas, has charged that the Israeli massacres in Gaza Strip were carried out in coordination with the American administration. Abu Marzouk in a statement to the PIC on Saturday said that the Palestinian people were targeted in this "genocide", which he described as the "most savage in history of mankind."
He emphasized, however, that killing the children, women and elderly people would not bring security and safety to Zionists but rather would bring them more destruction. The Hamas official opined that the Gaza massacre was an introduction to another scheme targeting the entire region, pointing to the presence of the American USS Cole destroyer off the Lebanese coasts.
He described as "hollow" and lacking credibility the justifications for the Israeli aggression on the part of the Israeli army and certain Palestinian politicians, and charged that the ongoing carnage would remain a shame on the entire world.
On his part, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas urged "international protection for the Palestinian people." "It is unthinkable that Israel's reaction to Palestinian rocket attacks -- which we condemn -- can be so terrible and frightening," Abbas said, adding that the attacks were targeting "innocent women, children and old people."
Abbas called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the upsurge in violence, a Palestinian spokesman said.
Meanwhile, Palestinian fighters bombarded Israel with more than 40 rockets and mortar rounds, undeterred by Israeli troops backed by tanks and attack aircraft. Several Israeliw were wounded.
