Israel Raids Gaza City, Killing 9

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday September 24, 2002 10:52 by blisset

Tuesday September 24, 2002 10:10 AM From Guardian Breaking News http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-2038516,00.html

Excerpt:

The raid on Gaza City began around midnight, with about 60 armored vehicles converging on two neighborhoods. Israeli commentators said the operation - the deepest foray into the city of 600,000 in two years of fighting - apparently was a warmup for a larger offensive that would target Hamas leaders.

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the military is considering expelling the Hamas spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, and a senior official in the group, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, but that no final decision has been made. Rantisi warned Tuesday that ``Gaza will be a grave to all Israeli soldiers.''

In Tuesday's operation, nine Palestinians were killed - the highest one-day death toll in the strip since July when 15 people, nearly all civilians, died in an Israeli airstrike that targeted the leader of the Hamas military wing, Salah Shehadeh.

Three of those killed Tuesday were militiamen and six were civilians killed by stray rounds, doctors and relatives said. Among the dead civilians were two pairs of brothers who had been caught in the fighting. Twenty-four people were injured.