Israeli missile strike kills six in Gaza
Israeli helicopters killed
six people in a missile strike on a car in the southern
Gaza Strip on Monday, hospital officials said.
Palestinians said the attack
in Rafah, near Gaza's border with Egypt, appeared to be
an assassination attempt on militants waging an uprising
against Israeli occupation.
Israeli officials declined
immediate comment.
Doctors in Rafah said six
men were killed when missiles slammed into two vehicles
on the outskirts of the southern Gaza refugee camp. They
said 10 people were also wounded, including several children.
Israel Radio said the missiles
slammed into a car carrying suspected militants in the
latest strike under Israel's policy of deliberately killing
militants it blames for suicide bombings and shooting
attacks against Israelis.
The vehicle was turned into
a pile of twisted wreckage and body parts were scattered
amid the smoking remains of the vehicle, witnesses said.
The identities of the dead
men were not immediately known.
Israel launched the attack shortly after taking over a
sixth Palestinian-ruled city in the West Bank as part
of a policy of reoccupying Palestinian areas until suicide
bombings end.
Israeli tanks and armoured personnel carriers rolled
into the West Bank city of Ramallah early on Monday and
surrounded the headquarters of Palestinian President Yasser
Arafat, local witnesses said.
The deaths in Gaza brought the toll to at least 1,416
Palestinians and 548 Israelis killed since the Palestinian
uprising began in September 2000 after negotiations on
a final peace treaty became deadlocked.
Gaza, June
24, 2002 (Reuters)
