Palestinians Killed by Israelis at 2½-Year High

[Scurrilous]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/02/international/middleeast/02toll.html

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"The Israeli Army killed more Palestinians in October than in any month since the height of open warfare in April 2002, when Israelis moved through the West Bank and fought Palestinian security forces and militants.

The army killed 165 Palestinians in October, 159 of them in the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli daily Haaretz. In Gaza, Israeli forces were trying to stop the shelling of Israeli towns in what was the largest Israeli military operation there in four years. There was heavy fighting between Israelis and Palestinians in the narrow, crowded alleys of the Jabaliya refugee camp, and a number of the dead were senior members of militant groups like Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades.

According to an inquiry by Haaretz, 50 of the 165 dead, or just over 30 percent, were civilians, including women, children, the elderly and males under 16.

Other calculations of the total number of Palestinian dead are slightly different, but all reflect the largest death toll since April 2002. The Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group says that 148 Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces in October and that 5 died from Palestinian retribution. The Palestinian Red Crescent says 142 Palestinians died.
In the Gaza operation itself, at least 115 Palestinians were killed, and 39 percent (45 people) were civilians, according to Haaretz's calculations. More than 90 homes, said by the army to have been used to launch rockets or harbor militants, were destroyed."