Nazir Majally, Asharq Al-Awsat

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 11 October 2003 — Israeli forces staged a massive raid on the Gaza Strip yesterday. At least seven Palestinians, including an eight-year-old boy, were killed in daylong gunbattles between Palestinian fighters and Israeli forces. Fifty-five people were wounded.

The raid on the Rafah refugee camp began around midnight Thursday and could last several days, military sources said. It was part of stepped-up military activity in response to last weekend’s bombing that killed 20 Israelis in a restaurant in Haifa.

Earlier this week, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz ordered two more battalions into the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and decided to call up four battalions of reserve soldiers, or about 1,000 troops, after the Sukkot holiday which ends in a week.

Troops have been enforcing a strict travel ban, confining Palestinians in the West Bank to their communities and blocking main roads in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli Army said the Rafah raid was aimed at uncovering weapons smuggling tunnels. Armored vehicles and attack helicopters swept into the camp on Gaza’s border with Egypt, joined by special forces, including engineering units with dogs trained to find tunnels.

Israeli government spokesman Dore Gold said his country was forced to use its military to go after militant groups and their infrastructure because the Palestinian leadership had not done so.

Palestinians said an eight-year-old boy shot in the stomach died of his wounds while on a respirator. Most of the casualties were caused when a helicopter fired a missile at a crowd, witnesses said. The military said the missile targeted a group of gunmen. One of the dead was decapitated.

An Israeli soldier was also lightly wounded in the fighting.

Dr. Ali Mousa, director of Rafah’s small Najar Hospital, said his hospital was overwhelmed by the large number of casualties. He said many of the wounded required surgery, but that he had only one operating room and did not have enough medicine and other supplies.

Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat condemned the raid and said such violence contributed to instability and undermined efforts to get a new Palestinian government in place.

On the government crisis, Palestinian officials said they were engaged in “telephone diplomacy” to persuade the new prime minister, Ahmed Qorei, to drop his threat to resign. Qorei maintained public silence in an apparent dispute with President Yasser Arafat over security powers that are crucial to a revival of Middle East peacemaking.

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council decided yesterday to hold a public session on Tuesday on Israel’s construction of a security barrier cutting off most of the West Bank, diplomats said.