Nazir Majally, Asharq Al-Awsat

RAFAH, Gaza Strip, 24 December 2003 — The Israeli Army unleashed a rain of terror in southern Gaza yesterday, killing eight Palestinians in a revenge raid, hours after two Israeli officers died in a grenade attack in one of the bloodiest bouts of violence in months.

Palestinian medical and security sources said the eight killed in Rafah refugee camp, including a policeman and a rescue worker, died during the raid involving some 15 jeeps and armored vehicles.

Medical sources added that another 34 people were injured, eight of whom were in serious condition. Among those injured were three children aged between three and five, they added.

Israeli military sources said they had sustained no casualties during the operation.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday condemned the Israeli raid and urged the Jewish state to better protect civilians and return to peace talks.

“The secretary-general reiterates that Israel, as the occupying power, must protect the civilian population and desist from using disproportionate force,” UN chief spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

“He strongly urges the government of Israel to refrain from such violent actions and return to peaceful negotiations with its Palestinian partners according to the quartet’s road map,” Eckhard said.

Annan “strongly condemns” the incursion, Eckhard said.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the raid appeared designed to wreck any hope of reviving the peace process.

“This escalation is aimed at torpedoing the Arab and international efforts to relaunch the peace process and implement the road map,” he said in reference to the troubled internationally sponsored peace blueprint.

Rafah has seen a number of large scale Israeli Army operations recently.

Six Palestinians were killed two weeks ago in an incursion to capture a wanted leader from the Islamic Jihad group. Also in the West Bank, the Israeli Army yesterday demolished five Palestinian homes, witnesses and Palestinian security sources said.

Meanwhile, a high-ranking Palestinian delegation was set to head to Cairo on a fence-mending mission after an embarrassing assault on Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat ordered Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) political bureau chief Farouk Qaddoumi, Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath and his chief security adviser, Jibril Rajub, to lead the team.

The group, of whom Qaddoumi was the first to arrive in Cairo yesterday, would “offer the apologies of the Palestinian leadership and the Palestinian people after the cowardly aggression”, the Al-Quds daily reported.

Maher was late Monday taken to hospital after suffering breathing difficulties as crowds denounced him as a “traitor” and hurled shoes while he was rounding off a visit to Israel during which he met Sharon. After returning to Cairo, Maher said the incident would have “no impact on Egypt’s” role as a mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Cairo would “continue its efforts” for peace in the region.

— Additional input from agencies