Bethlehem: 8 March

by Khalid Amayreh

The Israeli occupation army on Friday stepped up it ruthless war against the civilian Palestinian population throughout the West Bank and Gaza strip, killing and wounding hundreds of men, women and children.

Hospital sources in Gaza and the West Bank said as many as 40 Palestinians were killed and over 200 injured in massive Israeli bombing and strafing of Palestinian population centers.

Casualty figures are expected to rise as many corpses of civilians were still lying in the streets in Tulkarm and Bethlehem where Israeli troops are preventing rescue crews from reaching them.

In Bethlehem Israeli soldiers on Friday shot dead another medical worker as he was trying to save the life of a woman wounded in a helicopter strafing. Eyewitnesses said Ahmed Othman, 37, was riddled with bullets in front of the Yamama hospital at Al-Khader, west of Bethlehem, as he sought to give first-aid to the injured woman. The woman also succumbed to her wounds shortly afterwards.

All in all, at least five Palestinians, including a 36-year-old housewife, Huda Ismael al Khawaja, were killed in indiscriminate Israeli bombardment and machinegun strafing. Al-Khawaja was killed inside her home, neighbors said.

In the Tulkarm refugee camp, a Voice of Palestine correspondent reported that many corpses were lying in the streets as trigger-happy Israeli soldiers were shooting at anybody moving. "It is clear they want the injured to bleed to death, that is why they are barring rescue teams from reaching the camp."

"It is a real massacre."

So far, more than 17 Palestinian refugees were killed and over a hundred injured since more than 50 Israeli tanks overran the defenseless camp on thursday. At least thirteen of the 17 people killed were ordinary innocent civilians who had no connection to resistance fighters. Among the innocent victims is a shepherd killed by an Israeli apache helicopter while he was grazing his sheep outside Tulkarm.

Last night, the Israeli army killed two medical workers and injured three others when Israeli tanks barraged two Red Cross and Red Crescent ambulances with heavy machinegun fire. A few hours later, an Israeli tank crushed and flattened an ambulance car in Tulkarm, which apparently indicates that the Israeli army has come to consider rescue workers as legitimate targets. The Israeli army didn't even apologize for killing the two paramedics.

The most ruthless Israeli rampage took place at the village of Khaza'a near Khan Younis in the central part of the Gaza Strip early Friday. According to Palestinian sources and UN observers, Israeli helicopter gunships carried out an indiscriminate strafing of the villages in early morning, killing as many as 17 Palestinians in less than three hours. Hospital sources said the victims include farmers, housewives, and children.

Also among the victims is the second highest-ranking PA police official Ahmed al Mufraj. The Israeli army said it had no knowledge of the killings.

All the localities where the killings took place were declared "closed military zones" and off-limit even to reporters.

Last night, a Palestinian resistance fighter from Hamas military wing, the Izzedin al Kassam Brigades, killed five Israeli soldiers and injured 15 others when he attacked a training camp inside an Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian fighter was subsequently killed by Israeli occupation troops.

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