IDF kills 3 Gaza youths; Jihad wing rescinds truce

[underthedome]

Israel Defense Forces soldiers shot dead three Palestinian youths in the Gaza Strip Saturday.

Two of the boys, aged 14, were identified as Mussa and Khaled Ghanam. An additional Palestinian youth was seriously wounded in the incident, near Rafah's Tel a-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah. The injured youth underwent surgery at a Rafah hospital and later died of his wounds.

Shortly after news of the shooting spread, an Islamic Jihad spokesman said the group was no longer bound by a de facto ceasefire with Israel.

"The Jerusalem Brigades is free of any commitment to calm after the Israeli shedding of Palestinian youths' blood," said Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Abdallah. "This means that now we are no longer committed to truce."

The truce is an agreement by the Palestinian Authority and several Palestinian militant groups who committed to keeping the calm in the aftermath of former PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's passing and the establishment of a new Palestinian leadership under Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Israel insists it is not a part to the agreement, calling it an internal Palestinian matter.

According to Palestinian sources, the youths was playing on the outskirts of the Rafah refugee camp, several hundred meters from the frontier. IDF forces opened fire on them from the south.

"I saw a group of youths playing soccer in a playground about 50 meters from the fence," said Wael Barhoum, 26. "Suddenly there was gunfire toward the youths from the Israeli side. I ran towards the playground and we saw two of the youths were dead and a third was wounded."

Three men had approached a buffer zone near Israel's border with southern Gaza in the Rafah refugee camp. Troops fired at them after they failed to heed warning shots, a military source said. Israel Radio quoted an IDF official who said the youths were crawling toward the fence.

A rise in violent incidents has been registered recently in the Gaza Strip. A Qassam rocket landed in the Negev town of Sderot several days ago, and a mortar shell landed in a Gaza settlement.

No Palestinians or Israelis were killed in the Strip during the month of March. In the West Bank, one Palestinian, 25-year-old Islamic Jihad activists Abd al-Latif Abu Khalil was killed.

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/562862.html

[whistle]

1. Is Palestine/Gaza still considered a country, or is all of the territory

...part of Israel?

[Colorado Blue]

3. It is occupied territory, taken in the 6 Day War from Egypt,

who controlled Gaza, and Jordan, who controlled the West Bank.

Here is a link to the 6 Day War:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Six_Day_War

The article details the events leading up to the war, the war itself, and how the territories came to be occupied. They've been retained both as bargaining chips in return for peace agreements, and as buffer zones against further attack.

The territories were supposed to have been returned in exchange for peace settlements, but other wars have intervened since, and no peace treaties are in place to this day. King Hussein of Jordan tried to get one done just a few weeks ago but other Arab states refused to sign a treaty.

Hosni Mubarek of Egypt is also trying to work things out, he is dealing directly with Palestinian militants, trying to get them to disarm and join the effort to create a Palestinian state. Thus far, he has not succeeded.

Meanwhile, militants have been using this period of calm to rearm, hence the trigger-happy troops guarding the border with Egypt. A missile was fired just the other day; I posted an article about this in the I/P forum.

If you need more information, please let me know.

[Yosie]

4. You asked

"Is Palestine/Gaza still considered a country, or is all of the territory part of Israel?"

1. By turning down the UN Partition Plan in 1948 - it NEVER became a country.

2. The present juridical status is "occupied territories."

[Colorado Blue]

2. Three Palestinian youths killed by IDF fire in Rafah

Oh, AAAARRRGGGHHHHHHHH.

Another article, from Jerusalem Post:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1113025482014

IDF troops fired at a group of Palestinian youths who were playing soccer near an army base in the southern Gaza Strip, killing three teenagers, Palestinian residents and hospital officials said.

The army said a group of youths had entered an unauthorized area near the border and ignored warning shots to stop. The shots were fired by forces patrolling the area in an armed vehicle, the army said.

snip

As a result of the incident, the Palestinians fired five mortar shells at Gush Katif settlements on Saturday. No injuries or damage were reported.

Hamas pledged to avenge the deaths of the three teens.

snip

The Rafah refugee camp has been a frequent flashpoint of fighting since violence broke out in late 2000. The IDF frequently operates in the area to halt weapons smuggling across the border.

snip

[whistle]

5. Violence begets violence and so it continues......

[Colorado Blue]

8. Tragic! nt

[newyorican]

6. Disengagement is beginning...

to sound more like...

Pull back and fire from a distance. :shrug:

[pelsar]

7. what did you all expect?

holding hands and songs....of course many of the events still continue...smugglers still smuggle, IDF still patrols, ambushes are set, palestenians still shoot every so often...the point is, that its lessened, and it is that with which we are looking at.

both sides have elements that are looking for the excuse to return to fighting......

[Colorado Blue]

9. After decades of violence, who can expect an overnight

change?

If only the MAJORITY can hold to the idea of peace, and the leaders, it will be ok. I hope.

[Violet_Crumble]

10. Islamic Jihad...

Are they an element that are looking for an excuse to return to fighting? Or is the Jerusalem Brigade just a small part of their structure? The article said a senior group official denied that the truce had been broken, so I'm guessing that's what it is...

Violet...

[newyorican]

11. I expect...

some kids playing soccer being able to do so without getting gunned down in cold blood.

But maybe I expect too much...

Well now I expect:

1) Rationalization
2) Justification
3) Investigation
4) Memory-hole-ization

[Darranar]

12. I can see no excuse at all for this. A despicable act. n/t

[Scurrilous]

13. Soldiers who killed Rafah youths didn't aim at legs

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=566062&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0

<snip>

"The soldiers who killed three Palestinian youths in Rafah nine days ago shot to kill and did not aim their weapons at the lower parts of the victims' bodies as military sources originally claimed, according to the findings of a probe conducted by the Israel Defense Forces. The incident, which occured on April 9, left three 14-year-old Palestinians dead.

The IDF's Southern Command has yet to ascertain exactly what the youths were doing close to the Egyptian border. One possible explanation is that they were trying to damage a surveillance camera installed by the IDF in the area."

<snip>

"The soldiers acted as if they were involved in a confrontation with an armed cell, and there was no justification for this," a military source said. "There was no reason for an incident like this to have ended in the death of three youths."

To date, no measures have been taken against the officer and soldiers involved in the incident, with the probe expected to continue over the coming days."