The Guardian 8 November, 2006
More Israeli killings in Gaza
Israeli troops were last week reported to have killed 11 Palestinians in Gaza, three of them civilians including a 75-year-old, in one of its biggest operations in the coastal strip in months. Most of the dead were reported to have killed in the town of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza during an Israeli army raid on the area.
Witnesses said soldiers, backed by tanks and using loudspeakers, ordered all residents over 16 years of age in the town to present themselves at a school for questioning.
The town of 30,000 people has been effectively under an army curfew since the Israeli troops entered it on Wednesday, the witnesses said.
The latest casualties bring to 16 the number of Palestinians killed since last Wednesday.
Thursday’s offensive has further weakened the prospects of resuming peace talks between the two sides. Hamas has said the bloodshed could also complicate Egyptian-brokered talks aimed at arranging a swap of Palestinian prisoners in Israel for an Israeli soldier abducted in a cross-border raid last June.
"Residents are in panic as the sound of gunfire and explosions never stops. The curfew is very, very tight", Yamen Hamad, a local journalist, told Reuters by telephone.
Relatives said one of the civilians killed on Thursday, a 75-year-old man, was shot by troops on a rooftop when he went onto the balcony of his home to take his disabled son inside.
Hospital officials said 15 people had been wounded, including four children and a woman injured when a tank shell hit their house.
More than 280 Palestinians have been killed in the four-month-old offensive, about half of them civilians.