IOF Raid Rafah Refugee Camp, Kill Seven, Wound 30+

IOF Raid Rafah Refugee Camp, Kill Seven, Wound Scores

At least seven Palestinians were killed early Tuesday, and some thirty others were wounded, in an Israeli military raid on the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, a few days after IOF troops killed four Palestinians, including an elderly man and two children, in the West Bank refugee camp of Balata.

Palestinian medical and security sources confirmed that Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), backed by tanks and Apache gunships, raided the neighborhoods of Rafah refugee camp under a barrage of heavy gunfire.

Hospital sources identified the five Palestinians killed in the raid, as Khalil Al-Qasas, 50, Ali Alnajar, 22, Ibrahim Alnajar, 24, Khamis Alrai, 21, and Ahmad Alnajar, 32.

Two others were killed when a tank shell fell on a crowd of Palestinians. The victims were identified as Ala’ Ata Bahloul, 23 and Wi’am Rizeq Mousa, 26, a medic who came to rescue a group of people shelled by a tank.

Eyewitnesses said that hundreds of citizens were forced to flee their houses as IOF tanks bombarded the neighborhoods, using shells and missiles. Medical sources confirmed that at least 30 civilians were wounded; many of them in critical condition.

IOF bulldozers also demolished a number of houses near the borderline with Egypt, witnesses said.

Israel’s renewed military aggression comes a few days after onslaughts were launched on several Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank.

In the northern West Bank town of Nablus, IOF continued the raid on Balata refugee camp, which rendered four citizens two of them children dead, Palestinian sources said.

An elderly Palestinian, Nazmi Aziz, 62, died of a heart attack when IOF soldiers blasted the front door of his house without prior notice, medical sources said Monday.

Neighbors of Aziz said he died before he could reach the hospital. Hospital officials said Aziz would have been rescued if he roadblocks and curfew imposed by the Israeli army did not hinder his journey to hospital.

On Sunday evening, Palestinian medical sources in Nablus declared that Zuheir Owaiss, 46, suffocated to death after IOF soldiers threw tear gas canisters at citizens’ houses in Balata refugee camp.

Also that day, seven-year-old Mohammed Al-Araj was killed after he was shot in the chest while eating inside his house in Balata refugee camp, Palestinian medical sources said.

Officials at Rafidia hospital said that another boy died from injuries sustained earlier when he was hit in the head by a rubber-coated steel bullet, fired by IOF soldiers during a raid into the same refugee camp.

Nureddin Emran, 15, was taken to a hospital in Nablus five days ago where he fell into a coma.

Meanwhile, at least twenty Israeli military vehicles supported by helicopters invaded the eastern part of Jenin City, opening heavy gunfire at Palestinian citizens and their property.

Medical sources in Jenin confirmed that five Palestinian citizens, including two children, were wounded by IOF gunfire.

2 UN Workers Wounded by Israeli Gunfire

IOF troops opened heavy gunfire in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, wounding three Palestinian citizens, two of whom are UN workers, medical sources said.

Eyewitnesses said that IOF soldiers stationed around Al Toffah military checkpoint and near the illegal Jewish settlement of “Neveh Dekalim” opened gunfire at Palestinian workers from the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA), who were fixing a nearby water pipe the Israeli tanks destroyed in a previous raid.

Witnesses added that the workers were wearing bright clothes with the UNRWA logo on them.

Officials at Nasser hospital said that the three wounded citizens were in moderate condition.

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