This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It will not be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/6127250.stm
The article has changed 15 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
Version 7 | Version 8 |
---|---|
Israeli shelling kills 18 in Gaza | Israeli shelling kills 18 in Gaza |
(about 1 hour later) | |
At least 18 Palestinians have been killed and 40 wounded by Israeli tank fire in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, Palestinian sources have said. | At least 18 Palestinians have been killed and 40 wounded by Israeli tank fire in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, Palestinian sources have said. |
Palestinian officials said a barrage of tank shells hit civilian homes, and women and children were among the dead. | Palestinian officials said a barrage of tank shells hit civilian homes, and women and children were among the dead. |
Israel has ordered the army to halt artillery attacks in the Gaza Strip and is investigating the incident. | Israel has ordered the army to halt artillery attacks in the Gaza Strip and is investigating the incident. |
Palestinian leaders have called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting to force Israel to stop its operations. | Palestinian leaders have called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting to force Israel to stop its operations. |
The Palestinian prime minister, Hamas's Ismail Haniya, denounced the Israeli attack as an "awful massacre" and said talks on forming Palestinian unity government would be suspended. | The Palestinian prime minister, Hamas's Ismail Haniya, denounced the Israeli attack as an "awful massacre" and said talks on forming Palestinian unity government would be suspended. |
It is the saddest scene and images I have ever seen Eyewitness Attaf Hamad Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz ordered the halt in artillery attacks and called for an urgent inquiry into the incident. | |
Palestinian hospital officials said the final death toll was 18, including two women and six children. Thirteen of the dead belonged to the same family. | |
The Israelis withdrew from the town on Tuesday following a major offensive centred in Beit Hanoun. | |
More than 60 Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were killed in a week-long operation that Israel says was aimed at stopping militant rocket fire into Israel from Gaza. | |
National morning | |
TV footage from Beit Hanoun showed the victims being taken to hospital in their sleeping clothes, some with terrible injuries. | TV footage from Beit Hanoun showed the victims being taken to hospital in their sleeping clothes, some with terrible injuries. |
Many of the dead were members of the same family"It is the saddest scene and images I have ever seen. We saw legs, we saw heads, we saw hands scattered in the street," 22-year-old eyewitness Attaf Hamad told Reuters news agency. | |
"I saw people coming out of a house covered in blood. I started screaming to wake up the neighbours." | "I saw people coming out of a house covered in blood. I started screaming to wake up the neighbours." |
Palestinian leaders announced three days of national mourning throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. | |
A local Hamas leader has called for the group to resume suicide bombings inside Israel, a policy suspended two years ago by the main militant faction. | |
"Israel should be wiped from the face of the Earth. It is an animal state that recognises no human worth. It is a cancer that should be eradicated," said Ghazi Hamad, a spokesman for the Hamas-led government. | |
Shots have also been fired at the European Union office in Gaza City in an apparent retaliation, Palestinian authorities said. | |
href="/1/hi/world/middle_east/5122404.stm" class="">Profile: Gaza Strip href="/1/hi/world/middle_east/6122138.stm" class="">Fear and despair in Gaza Unidentified gunmen opened fire on the building and youths threw stones, Palestinian sources reported, adding no-one was injured in the attack. | |
Earlier, in a separate incident, five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli army raid near the West Bank town of Jenin. | |
They were said to be members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement. | |
The Israeli army said it had found large quantities of arms during its six-day operation throughout Beit Hanoun which ended 24 hours earlier. | |
Militants launched at least four rockets into the Israeli town of Ashkelon from northern Gaza on Tuesday. There were no casualties. | Militants launched at least four rockets into the Israeli town of Ashkelon from northern Gaza on Tuesday. There were no casualties. |