Four Palestinians were killed on Wednesday during an Israeli army operation in the Gaza City neighbourhood of Zeitun to recover the remains of six soldiers killed a day earlier during a raid, Palestinian medical sources said.
According to some witnesses, Midhat al-Banna, a 35-year-old peddler, was shot dead by Israeli troops. However, other witnesses said the man may have been accidentally hit by Palestinian gunfire.
Three Palestinians were killed and 10 wounded earlier in an Israeli helicopter raid on a house in Zeitun, where six soldiers were killed on Tuesday in a bomb attack by Palestinian militants against an armoured personnel carrier.
Among the wounded were a pregnant woman, her husband and her three children, aged one to 10, the medical sources said.
The dead were identified as Fawzi al-Madhun (28), Mohammed Mushtaha (23) and Moahmmed Yassin (21).
Six Palestinians were wounded in an earlier gunship raid on a house belonging to an Islamist miitant in the same area.
Israeli infantry backed by helicopters were combing the area for missing body parts, removed from the wreckage of the APC and which militants were trying to use as bargaining chips.
A total of 12 Palestinians have been killed in the area since Israeli armour backed by helicopters thrust into the Zeitun district early on Tuesday in an operation the army said was aimed at destroying workshops used by militants to manufacture rockets.
The deaths brought to 3 994 the number of fatalities in the Palestinian uprising which erupted in September 2000, including 3 013 Palestinians and 911 Israelis, according to an AFP tally. — Sapa-AFP