Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships killed 10 Palestinians as they hunted for a fugitive militant in a crowded refugee camp in the Gaza Strip early today.
Men called through mosque loudspeakers for people to come out and battle the Israeli soldiers, who entered the camp just after midnight and gunbattles raged for three hours in the Bureij camp.
It was unclear how many of the dead were fighters. The military said a helicopter fired a missile into a street, killing five armed men from the Islamic Hamas movement. The camp's mayor, Kamal Baghdadi, had originally said a tank shell had hit a building, killing seven people.
Ahmed Rabah, a doctor at the Al–Aqsa hospital in the nearby village of Deir el Balah, said nine people were killed and 11 were wounded. Rabah did not identify the casualties. An official at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said a tenth person, a woman, died of injuries.
Hassan Safi, aged 49, said he was 300 yards away in his home when an explosion rocked the neighbourhood. He said he thought the blast was from a tank shell.
"I rushed with my sons to the place, which was all destroyed. I myself took out two people. The helicopter was firing with machine guns at us, making it difficult to move," Safi said.
During the incursion, witnesses said troops surrounded the home of Jamal Ismail, a suicide bomber who blew himself up along with another man in an explosive–packed boat off the Gaza coast last month, wounding four Israeli soldiers in a navy patrol.
The Israeli army called the camp "a base for hardcore terror groups" of the militant Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance Committee.
Brigadier General Israel Ziv said the operation targeted Aiman Shasniyeh, a local leader for the Popular Resistance Committee, who the military believes was behind a bomb attack on a heavily armoured Merkava–3 tank that killed three soldiers in March.
Troops failed to find Shasniyeh but used explosive charges to destroy his house. Soldiers arrested one of his brothers, along with another man wanted by Israeli intelligence, Gen. Ziv said.
Troops approaching Shasniyeh's house came under withering gunfire from nearby homes and on the street in what turned into a close–quarters gunbattle in the camp's narrow alleyways, said army spokeswoman, Captain Sharon Feingold. One soldier was lightly wounded by gunfire, she said.
Helicopter gunships fired machine guns from above.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was outraged by the attack. "Every day there is a new massacre," he told reporters outside of his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah. "Every day there is destruction. Every day there is more damage. Every day there are more arrests and every day there are more assassinations."
An aide to Arafat, Nabil Abu Rdeneh, said the Palestinians would call on the United Nations Security Council to hold a special session on the violence and to consider sending international observers to the region.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments