Israeli Helicopters Kill Two Palestinian Civilians

20/10/2003| IslamWeb

Israeli helicopters fired two missiles at a pickup truck in Gaza City, killing two Palestinian civilians and wounding at least five in the second air strike in less than three hours. The pickup had stopped at a traffic light near a gas station, on a busy street crowded with schoolchildren, when the missiles hit the front of the vehicle. A kindergarten and an elementary school had just let out students for the day. Bus driver Ahmed Sobeh said he was driving behind the pickup at the time. "Suddenly, a big flame came from the sky and hit the car in front of me," he said. "School children were trying to cross the road (at the time) ... I saw a person in the car being evacuated and his body was completely burned. I also saw a teenager on the side of the street covered with blood but he was alive." Less than three hours earlier, Israeli warplanes bombed a home in Gaza City that reportedly belonged to a spokesman of the Islamic Jihad group, witnesses said. The explosion came hours after Palestinian resistance fighters ambushed an Israeli army patrol in the West Bank, killing three Zionist soldiers. The Israeli army foot patrol was attacked Sunday evening in the Palestinian village of Ein Yabrud, near the West Bank town of Ramallah. Three soldiers were killed, and another was seriously wounded, according to a statement. The ambush came a few hours after Israeli forces wound up a phase of a wide-ranging operation in a Palestinian refugee camp on the Egyptian border. Also Sunday, Israel's army used emergency orders to call up five reserve battalions - about 1,800 soldiers - to replace soldiers serving in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Such short-notice call-ups are unusual. Israel Radio said the reason was an increase in intelligence warnings of terror attacks. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Palestinians gather around a destroyed house following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City Monday, Oct. 20, 2003. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)