Kristen Ess: Palestine, Iraq, Ethnic Cleansing and Powell's Speech

Woman Crushed in Israeli Demolition of Gaza Home

By JAMES BENNET

JERUSALEM, Feb. 5 - While demolishing the home of a Palestinian militant's family in the Central Gaza Strip today, Israeli forces crushed to death his 65-year-old stepmother, who apparently did not hear their warnings to leave, the woman's family said.

In separate raids and clashes in West Bank cities today, soldiers shot dead two other Palestinians - a policeman and a teenager - and wounded several more.

The Israeli army said that it was checking the incident in Gaza, but that its soldiers followed established procedure to create a "sterile zone" before blowing up the structure, a two-story home in the Maghazi refugee camp.

Abla Said, the widow of the militant, Baha Said, said that soldiers ordered her and her children to leave the house, but prevented her from returning to warn the 65-year-old woman, Kamla Said.

"I told the Israelis I have to go and ask her to come, but they didn't let me go and wake her up," she said.

Kamla Said lived in a one-room building behind the house targeted for demolition, her family said.

The army said that over a 90-minute period, soldiers evacuated the targeted building and searched it, and then evacuated surrounding buildings.

"We are checking the claims, but the procedure was fully conducted for an hour and a half," an army spokesman said.

In recent months, the Israeli army has demolished dozens of houses of Palestinian militants, saying that the tactic discourages terrorist attacks.

Baha Said was killed two years ago while attacking Israeli soldiers guarding the Gaza settlement of Kfar Darom. Mr. Said and another gunman killed two soldiers in that attack.

The house was occupied by Mr. Said's four children and Abla Said, who, after Mr. Said's death, married his brother. Four brothers of Mr. Said were arrested at the house today, the family said.

In the West Bank early this morning, Israeli forces shot dead a 22-year-old Palestinian policeman during a raid into the city of Qalqiliya.

The army said its soldiers were pursuing wanted men when they approached a police station and spotted several men trying to flee. They army said that soldiers shouted warnings in Arabic and fired into the air before shooting at the fleeing men and hitting two of them.

Palestinian officials in Qalqiliya said that the soldiers issued no warnings, and that the fleeing men were not armed. The man who was killed was identified as Rida Ghanem.

This evening, paratroopers conducting searches in the center of the city of Nablus shot dead Samer Zurba, 17. Palestinians said that he was throwing stones, but the Israeli army said that he was armed and shooting at troops. No soldiers were injured.

Palestinian officials said that, during another Israeli raid today, into the town of Tamoun north of Nablus, soldiers opened fire on a group of youths throwing stones. They said a 13-year-old boy was shot in the head and critically injured.

The army said that soldiers used mostly non-lethal weapons and ammunition to disperse a crowd throwing stones and bricks. The army said that one soldier fired one live bullet, hitting a Palestinian in the leg.

In the southern Gaza Strip early today, 13 Palestinians were injured by Israeli tank fire during clashes on the western edge of the Khan Younis refugee camp, local Palestinian officials said. The army said that nearby Israeli settlements had come under mortar fire, and that Israeli forces had returned fire with light weapons toward the source of the mortar bombs. In all, ten mortar bombs were fired, the army said.

In operations throughout the West Bank, Israelis soldiers arrested 15 Palestinians overnight Tuesday, the army said.

For news and analysis from Palestine:
http://www.between-lines.org
http://www.electronicintifada.net
http://www.ccmep.org
http://www.palestinechronicle.com
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/

To get involved in Palestine solidarity in the US:
http://www.sustaincampaign.org
http://www.justiceinpalestine.org
http://www.al-awda.org
http://www.jewsagainsttheoccupation.org
http://www.palsolidarity.org

Torture and Palestinian political prisoners:
http://www.ppsmo.org/e-website/

Weekly report on Israeli human rights violations in Palestine:
http://www.pchrgaza.org/