By Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and The Associated Press - 04/11/2006
Three Hamas militants and one Palestinian civilian were killed in various incidents in the Gaza Strip on Saturday.
The incidents came on the fourth day of a stepped-up Israel Defense Forces offensive in Gaza aimed at halting Palestinian rocket fire on border communities in southern Israel.
An Israel Air Force strike early Saturday destroyed a minivan, killing a top Hamas rocket-maker and seriously wounding two others traveling in the vehicle in Gaza City.
The minivan burst into flames, and medical officials said the force of the blast severed the legs of two occupants.
Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas` military wing, said the men in the vehicle were all militants.
The IDF confirmed the air strike, saying Hamas militants were the target of the attack.
Hamas gunmen also attacked a house used by Israeli soldiers, setting off explosives and firing rockets, Abu Obeida said.
According to Abu Obeida, one gunman was killed in the fighting there. The army declined comment.
Palestinians also reported that another Hamas gunman was shot and killed by an IDF sniper.
Witnesses reported that a Palestinian civilian was killed when an Israeli tank shell brought down his small home, burying him under the rubble.
The army had no immediate comment on the incident, or the reports of house demolitions.
Early Saturday, witnesses reported large military bulldozers began demolishing homes near a mosque that was the scene of a bloody standoff on Friday.
Witnesses said residents of the homes received no warning ahead of town and were seen running for safety.
Residents also reported six Israeli air strikes in Beit Hanun overnight, but they said there were no injuries.
On Friday, at least 19 Palestinians, including five civilians, were killed in IDF operations in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Nine of the fatalities occurred in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun.
The IDF offensive in Gaza has focused on Beit Hanun, a town close to the border with Israel.
In a new operation, the army has moved deep into town and moved house to house in search of militants.
The army had previously stationed ground troops on the outskirts of populated areas.
On Friday night, three IAF strikes around the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya and one near the southern town of Rafah killed seven Palestinian militants and wounded several more, Palestinian security officials said.
A few hours earlier, another air strike hit a makeshift mosque on the outskirts of Beit Hanun on Friday evening, killing at least one Palestinian and injuring three others.
The small building, known as the Abdullah Azzem Mosque, was used for Muslim prayers, but did not have the outward signs or markings of a mosque.
The IDF said it targeted a group of militants who were planting an explosive device near a road junction. The militants were out in the open, and army officials said no building was targeted in the strike.
The IDF says the Beit Hanun operation is aimed at preventing Qassam rocket fire from the town at southern Israel. Since the operation began, at least 34 Palestinians have been killed in the town, most of them militants.
Residents said Beit Hanun, a town of 30,000, was effectively under an army curfew and under its control.
Earlier Friday, a 40-year-old woman was killed by IDF fire as women flocked to a Beit Hanun mosque to act as human shields for some 60 gunmen holed up inside. Two other civilians - youths aged 15 and 19 - were also said to have been killed.
In the early hours of the morning, Palestinian officials said a four-year-old boy died of wounds sustained in IDF shelling in Beit Hanun the day before.
The 19-hour standoff between IDF troops and the gunmen inside the mosque ended after the gunmen fled, the IDF and Palestinians said. The militants escaped under cover of the protest by the women outside, the IDF said. An army source said some of the gunmen had surrendered to the soldiers.
However, troops and militants continued to trade fire in two buildings next to the mosque, and the IDF surrounded the Beit Hanun hospital, calling on militants inside to surrender, Israel Radio reported.
Palestinian witnesses and hospital officials said that the woman was killed and several others were wounded when IDF troops opened fire on the women.
The mosque became the focus of the fighting in Beit Hanun after gunmen fled there late Thursday. Most were thought to belong to the military wing of the ruling Hamas party.
IDF tanks and armored personnel carriers quickly surrounded the building, and the two sides began exchanging fire that lasted throughout the night, the military and Palestinian security officials said.
Soldiers trying to pressure the gunmen to surrender also threw stun and smoke grenades, and knocked down an outer wall of the mosque with a bulldozer. The ceiling of the mosque, said to be one of the oldest in the town, later collapsed.
A Hamas radio station had broadcast a call to women to go to Beit Hanun to shield the militants. Dozens of women left their homes to hurry to the mosque, and en route, came under IDF fire, witnesses and officials said.
The army said that troops had spotted two militants hiding in the crowd of women and opened fire.
As the women rushed away from the scene, at least two men disguised in women`s clothes were seen in the crowd. Jubilant bystanders embraced them, celebrating their escape.
"Our fighters made holes through the nearby houses to the mosque. The women entered the mosque as the fighters managed to guide the gunmen out," said Hamas militant commander Abu Ubaida.
Israel had allowed trucks loaded with medical and food supplies to reach hospitals, and for ambulances to evacuate the wounded, said Colonel Nir Press, head of Israel`s Coordination and Liaison Administration for the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas "saluted the women of Palestine ... who led the protest to break the siege of Beit Hanun." Haniyeh urged United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to witness firsthand "the massacres of the Palestinian people," and appealed to the Arab world to "stop the ongoing bloodshed."
Dozens of protesters also took sanctuary in a UN school in Beit Hanun, fearing retribution by troops, said Imad Okal, an official with the UN Relief and Works Agency, who said he was in touch with people at the school.
Loudspeakers across Gaza called on people to come to demonstrations after Friday prayers to express solidarity with Beit Hanun. Tens of thousands representing various Palestinian factions massed in streets throughout the Strip.
Also Friday, a Hamas gunman was killed during clashes in Beit Hanun and four militants from Iz al-Din al-Qassam, Hamas` military wing, were killed in an IAF strike in the Gaza City neighborhood of Sajaiya.
Palestinians launched ten Qassam rockets at the Negev on Friday and fired an anti-tank rocket at an IDF post in south Gaza, lightly wounding a soldier. According to the military, 300 rockets have been fired at Israel from Beit Hanun since the start of the year.
Two killed in West Bank
In the West Bank, Palestinians said an elderly woman was killed during an IDF arrest raid in the city of Bethlehem on Friday morning. A Border Police officer was also wounded.
The woman, 65, was caught in a crossfire between militants holed up in a house and IDF soldiers surrounding the building, Palestinian witnesses said. Two other residents were wounded, they said.
The IDF said forces were operating in Bethlehem, but provided no other details.
Also Friday, IDF troops shot dead a Fatah militant in the West Bank who was apparently planning to detonate a car bomb.
IDF troops opened fire on two Palestinian men pulling barbed wire into a car at the Balata refugee camp near Nablus, killing one and wounding the other. The car was later found filled with tens of kilograms of explosives.
The militant was identified as 15-year-old Ibrahim Sanakra, brother of Alaa Sanakra, the Nablus leader of the Fatah-linked Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
Israel arrested Palestinian Minister Abdel Rahman Zaidan, a Hamas official, at his home in the West Bank city of Ramallah before dawn Friday, Israel Radio quoted Israeli and Palestinian sources as saying.
According to the report, Zaidan, the minister of housing and public works, is the tenth Palestinian minister to be arrested since IDF soldier Gilad Shalit was abducted in June.
