The Israeli army called a halt on Wednesday to a massive operation in the southern Gaza Strip as the death toll rose to nine from a raid denounced as a ”massacre” by the Palestinians and condemned by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Army sources confirmed that they were pulling out of Rafah refugee camp after unearthing a massive tunnel, which they said had been used to smuggle weapons under the Israeli-controlled border with Egypt.
”During the operation, the forces searched a residential building, suspected of serving as a cover for a weapons smuggling tunnel,” the army said.
”During those searches, a tunnel 800m long and 17m deep was discovered … The tunnel was destroyed in a controlled manner.”
Palestinian security sources said 30 houses had been totally destroyed and another 30 partially damaged during the incursion, which was launched at about midnight on Monday.
Medical sources said that nine Palestinians are known to have died in the raid.
The latest casualty, Mahmud Mansur, died overnight in hospital from injuries he sustained from a rocket that had been fired by an Israeli helicopter. The 24-year-old was a member of the Committees of Popular Resistance, an umbrella grouping of militant factions.
The Israelis insist that all the fatalities were legitimate targets although the Palestinians say four of the nine were civilians.
The front page of Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, the official newspaper of the Palestinian authority, ran with the headline ”Massacre of Rafah” above a photo of a teenager killed in the raid.
The paper said in an editorial that the operation is proof that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is ”determined to kill any prospect of calm”.
The raid has also been condemned by Annan, who said that Israel must do more to protect civilians.
”Israel, as the occupying power, must protect the civilian population and desist from using disproportionate force,” said Annan’s spokesperson, Fred Eckhard.
”The secretary general strongly condemns the latest military incursion,” he said. ”He strongly urges the government of Israel to refrain from such violent actions and return to peaceful negotiations.”
The response from the United States was muted, merely reiterating appeals for Israel to avoid harming civilians.
”We’ve always made clear that Israel has a right to defend itself but needs to decide its actions in a way that doesn’t result in the harm to innocent life and that doesn’t disrupt prospects for forward movements towards peace,” said State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher.
In separate statements, the two main Islamist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad called on Palestinians ”to unite in the face of the Zionist aggression”.
”We call on our people to reinforce their cohesion to face up to an enemy who wants to terrorise the Palestinian people and make them surrender,” a Hamas statement issued late on Tuesday said.
Islamic Jihad coupled its call for unity with a threat of reprisals.
”Killing innocents in Rafah will not go unpunished,” the militant group warned.
Several hours later a makeshift Qassam rocket, named after Hamas’s armed wing, wounded a couple of Jewish settlers in the northern Gaza Strip.
One of the wounded was in a serious condition after the rocket made a direct hit on a house in the settlement of Nisanit.
A second Qassam rocket hit the southern Israeli town of Sederot near the Gaza Strip early on Wednesday but there were no casualties, a military source said.
The violence cast a shadow over preparations for Christmas as crowds began to gather in the West Bank town of Bethlehem for the traditional midnight mass.
The Israeli government has eased travel restrictions to enable worshippers and tourists to attend the service in the birthplace of Jesus Christ.
It means that Christians from the Gaza Strip will be able to travel to Bethlehem for the first time since the Palestinian intifada broke out more than three years ago.
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Monsignor Michel Sabbah, embarked on his 10km procession from the holy city on Monday morning to Bethlehem where he will preside over midnight mass.
His Israeli escort is to be replaced by a Palestinian security presence just outside Bethehem where security control was transferred in July. — Sapa-AFP