Israeli forces kill 9 in Gaza

GAZA CITY: Nine Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, during an incursion that began the night before, Palestinian sources said.

Four Palestinians died on Thursday evening when a rocket was fired from an Israeli drone in the Khan Yunis refugee camp, medics said. Earlier, Osama Tuma, 17, a Palestinian teenager with Down’s Syndrome, was fatally hit by bursts of automatic weapon fire in Khan Yunis. Another 17-year-old, Mohammed Abu al-Said, was also killed by Israeli fire.

Three militants, two from the armed wing of Hamas and one from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades were killed overnight in the refugee camp. Five other Palestinians were wounded by Israeli fire, medics said. The army said the latest operation, the third in as many days, aimed to thwart Palestinian rocket and mortar firing at the Gaza Strip’s Jewish settlements.

Meanwhile, Israeli troops arrested the brother of one of the most wanted Palestinian militants, Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades chief Zakaria Zubeidi, in the northern West Bank. Jibril Zubeidi was picked up by soldiers as he tried to evade arrest at a checkpoint near Jenin, an Israeli security source told AFP. He was among three suspects who tried to flee from a vehicle but who surrendered after troops fired warning shots.

The arrest of his brother came just hours after Zakaria Zubeidi met the new PLO chairman Mahmud Abbas, according him a hero’s welcome as he toured Jenin. Zubeidi and other militants carried Abbas on their shoulders as he visited a cemetery in Jenin where the victims of a massive Israeli raid in early 2002 are buried. afp

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