Israeli warplanes fire at civilian homes near Rafah crossing after Hamas sit-in

Editorial Note: The following news reports may be summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology.

[ 10/07/2007 - 06:14 PM ]

RAFAH, (PIC)--

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) warplanes afternoon Tuesday fired heavy machinegun fire at Palestinian civilian homes near the Rafah border crossing with Egypt shortly after a sit-in was staged at the terminal at Hamas's call.

Medical sources said that a number of casualties were evacuated to Abu Yousef Al-Najjar hospital after the shooting.

Palestinian security sources said that IOF military build-up was monitored east of the border crossing. For its part the armed wing of the Hamas Movement fired 12 mortar shells at the Karm Abu Salem crossing, which is under Israeli control, south of the Gaza Strip.

Sami Abu Zuhri, one of the Hamas spokesmen in the Gaza Strip, had addressed the sit-in renewing his Movement's absolute rejection of allowing Palestinians stranded at the Egyptian side of the borders to enter via Karm Abu Salem.

He warned that the IOF would exploit the occasion to arrest and interrogate citizens returning to the Strip.

Abu Zuhri called on PA chief Mahmoud Abbas to put national above partisan interests and not to obstruct the reopening of the Rafah terminal.

The Hamas official called on Cairo to foil the attempt to open Karm Abu Salem, adding that the Rafah crossing should be of the sole concern of the Egyptians and the Palestinians.

He underlined that more activities would be organized until the safe return of all trapped Palestinians, calling on the Arab League to step in and pressure for the opening of Rafah crossing.

Fair Use Notice

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.