Nazir Majally, Asharq Al-Awsat

GAZA CITY, 12 December 2003 — Six Palestinians were killed yesterday in a major Israeli raid in southern Gaza, as the Jewish state continued to face a barrage of criticism over the construction of its West Bank separation wall.

Israeli troops backed by helicopter gunships thrust into the refugee camps of the town of Rafah in an incursion launched before dawn to capture Khaled Al-Qadi a leader of the Islamic Jihad group.

The troops wrapped up the operation shortly before noon (1000 GMT) after capturing Qadi alive. He was wanted over arms smuggling through tunnels running under the nearby border with Egypt and bomb attacks against Israeli forces.

The army surrounded his house and that of a Hamas leader near the border crossing with Egypt and started indiscriminate firing, leaving five Palestinians dead.

One of them was a Palestinian medic, who was shot as he was helping a wounded Palestinian reach an ambulance and died shortly after being transferred to Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, medical sources said.

An army spokesman said he was also a member of Hamas.

A 17-year-old Palestinian died of his wounds a few hours later and at least another 18 Palestinians were wounded, the medical sources added.

According to Palestinian security sources, a total of 12 people were arrested during the operation.

Palestinian witnesses also charged that the troops used three local residents as human shields to retrieve an injured soldier, an allegation denied by the army.

The operation, one of the army’s largest in recent weeks, came just a week after talks resumed between the Palestinian factions aimed at securing a truce in anti-Israeli attacks.

The Palestinian Authority condemned yesterday’s raid as an attempt by Israel to scupper the ongoing truce efforts and undermine stepped up Israeli-Palestinian contacts.

“We condemn this dangerous escalation which is aimed at scuttling all efforts deployed to restore calm to the region,” Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s top adviser Nabil Abu Rudeina told reporters.

In an interview published yesterday in the Israeli daily Maariv, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei slammed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for the construction of the separation wall in the West Bank and warned of renewed violence.

“If he wants to put up a fence and use it to annex Palestinian land, these things won’t help. The conflict will continue, the fire will burn, terror will increase, nobody will benefit,” the recently appointed premier told the paper.

The barrier was the recurrent source of friction in Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom’s ongoing tour of Europe.

During talks in Paris late Wednesday, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin questioned whether the barrier would boost security or whether on the contrary it risked “fueling the hatred” between Palestinians and Israelis.

The barrier was also the main bone of contention in the first Israeli-Palestinian ministerial talks since Qorei took office which took place in Rome on Wednesday, on the sidelines of a donor conference for the Palestinians.

In his meeting with Shalom yesterday, Pope John Paul II called for “concrete acts” from Israel and the Palestinians to break the current impasse.

Israel reacted angrily last month when the pope called the barrier “a new obstacle to peace” and declared that the Middle East “does not need walls but bridges”.

Israel also staged an incursion late yesterday into Jaba, in the north of the West Bank, firing at Palestinians, one of whom was injured, Palestinian security sources said.