Five Palestinians Killed In Overnight Attacks

[gelatik]

GAZA CITY, March 6- Two more Palestinians were killed early Wednesday by the
Israeli occupation army, bringing the number killed in overnight Israeli
attacks in the Gaza Strip to five, Palestinian medical sources said, news
agencies reported.
The sources said Abdel Jhani Abu Daqa, 32, died after being shot in the back
following an Israeli occupation army incursion at Abassan, near Khan Yunis in
the south of the Gaza Strip, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Another Palestinian, who had not yet been identified, had been found dead on
the beach at Beit Lahia in the north of the Gaza Strip.
Security and medical sources said he had been shot as Israeli marines targeted
a Palestinian security post and buildings belonging to the Palestinian marine
during a night of overnight attacks in the Gaza Strip.
Abu Daqa was the third to die in the Abassan incursion. Earlier medical sources
said Jamal Abu Hammad, 28, was shot in the abdomen and a Palestinian woman,
Moufida Abu Daqa, 48, was shot in the head, there. Both died after being taken
to hospital.
Earlier a Palestinian policeman died of his injuries after being hit by a
rocket fired by Israeli Marines, medical sources said.
Majdi al-Sabagh, 28, was injured when the rocket hit the vehicle in which he
and other police officers were traveling in the heights of the northern town of
Beit Lahia in the Gaza Strip. He later died in hospital.
Three other Palestinian policemen were injured in the attack.
Two Israeli occupation soldiers were also killed early Wednesday during
confrontations with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Israeli military sources
said.
They said the two soldiers died in fighting during an overnight Israeli
occupation army incursion at Abassan, near Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza
Strip.
The new Israeli attacks come after a new day of violence Tuesday in which at
least a dozen Palestinians were killed by occupation forces despite efforts to
stem the escalating violence in the 17-month conflict.
Palestinian sources said Tuesday evening that an Israeli Apache helicopter
missile attack on a car killed three Palestinians in the West Bank town of
Bituniya, west of Ramallah. It is possible that a fourth man traveling in the
car was hit in the attack.

The sources said that the men killed were Muhand Dirya Abu Halawa, an aide to
Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti, Omar Kaidan, the body guard of the head of the
Force 17 presidential guard in Ramallah Mahmoud Damara (Abu Awad) and Muhammad
Fawzi Murar, a member of Force 17. Israeli helicopters also attacked
Palestinian targets Tuesday evening in Ramallah and Tulkarem, and in the Gaza
Strip.

Missiles were fired at the main Palestinian security compound in Gaza City,
witnesses said. The missiles hit the Ansar-2 facility near the office of
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

Five Israelis were also killed in three separate attacks Tuesday morning and at
least one Palestinian security member was killed when Israeli occupation forces
stormed into a West Bank village near Hebron.

In addition, Israeli planes and helicopters carried out air strikes on various
Palestinian targets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In the afternoon, Israeli
Apache helicopters carried out air raids on Palestinian command centers in
Nablus and Ramallah.

The heavy-handed Israeli incursions, backed by tanks, helicopter gunships and
bulldozers, came after the Israeli security cabinet vowed late Sunday to turn
up the military pressure on the Palestinian authority after the weekend
retaliatory killing of 22 of its citizens.

More than 80 people, the vast majority Palestinians, have been killed in the
past week, despite international efforts to quell the Israeli violence