Subscribe to Print Edition | Sun., September 09, 2007 Elul 26, 5767 | | Israel Time: 01:56 (EST+7)
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Hamas gunmen gathering on Tuesday in central Gaza for the funeral of six fellow militants who were killed in an IDF operation Monday. (AP)
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Abbas: IDF operations prevent progress in peace talks
By Yuval Azoulay, Yoav Stern and Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondents and News Agencies

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' office condemned Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank on Wednesday, saying that the strikes make progress in peace talks impossible.

"It is impossible to conduct a peace process, to advance negotiations and to achieve results as long as Israel continues with its policy of military strikes," said Abbas' office in a statement.

The statement said that the IDF operations, which have killed 13 Palestinians since Monday, cast strong doubt on Israel's desire to make peace.

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Abbas' office called on the international community and the Quartet of Middle East mediators to intervene regarding these incidents and to halt Israel's military activities.

Earlier Wednesday, IDF troops killed a Hamas militant in an air strike in the Gaza Strip early Wednesday, a day after two children and three militants were killed in similar Gaza strikes. (For Haaretz.com TV broadcast click here.)

Hamas identified the militant killed Wednesday as Yehia Habib, a senior field commander in Gaza City. Three other militants were wounded.

Israel said it struck a group of armed men who had approached the border fence with Israel.

The attack took place hours after troops killed a 9-year-old and a 12-year-old as they tried to collect Qassam rocket launchers. The children were killed on Tuesday the afternoon by an IDF tank in the northern Gaza Strip. The two were seen moving in a field near Beit Hanun toward rocket launchers immediately after Qassam rockets had been fired on towns in Israel.

The rockets struck the area near Kibbutz Zikim, south of Ashkelon. There were no injuries or damage.

Soon after the launch, an IDF force identified the source of the rocket fire, surveyed the area, and identified a number of suspicious figures near the launchers. A tank in the area fired a round, which killed the two children. Another child was seriously injured in the incident.

"Children have no business being near Qassam rocket launchers," IDF officers said in a statement last night.

They said it is possible that Islamic Jihad had hired the children to collect the launchers after the launch. This phenomenon had already been observed in other instances, the IDF officers said.

The tank fired at the figures only after they were seen close to the launchers, IDF sources said.

The only reason anyone approaches the launchers after rockets are fired is to collect them or reload them, the sources said, so there was no way to avoid shooting at the people near the launchers.

"If these were children or youths, we regret the use that the terrorist groups are making of them," a statement from the IDF spokesman read Tuesday.

An IDF source said that troops that had carried out the operation identified the figures next to the launchers as militants. "They were handling the launchers and they obviously hadn't come to slide on them," he said. "Every Palestinian, including the militants, knows that anyone who hangs around these launchers is endangering themselves."

According to IDF analysts, Tuesday's rocket attack against Israel was carried out by the Jerusalem Battalions of the Islamic Jihad.

They said that the militants fled as soon as the rockets were launched.

"This is a cynical use of children but we are no longer surprised by anything we see. A 14-year-old child has already fired an RPG rocket against an IDF force, a grandmother aged close to 70 fired a light weapon against a Givati [Brigade] force recently in the Strip. What were these children doing there anyway? The militants fled immediately after the launch and then sent the children to collect the launchers," one of the sources added.

In another Qassam rocket attack, against the western Negev, one rocket hit a kindergarten in Sderot, causing damage. No injuries were reported because the children are still on summer vacation and the kindergarten was empty. The second Qassam landed in fields.

Palestinian militants have also fired several mortar shells at the western Negev, causing no injuries or damage.

Earlier Tuesday, IDF troops killed three Palestinian militants near the security fence in the southern Gaza Strip, near Khan Yunis.

According to the IDF, the militants were members of Islamic Jihad and were trying to carry out a shooting attack against Israeli targets near the fence. The army said the militants belong to a cell that had carried out such attacks in the past.

The incident began when the vehicle the three were in was spotted and attacked from the air. The three managed to flee, but they were intercepted by an IDF force in the fields.

A fourth militant was injured in the incident.

A spokesman for Islamic Jihad said that the four were on a "jihad-related" activity.

"The blood of our martyrs will be avenged," a statement read.

IDF troops found three sniper rifles in searches of the area following the incident, the army said.

On Monday night, Israel's Channel 2 television reported that six Hamas men killed in an Israeli attack earlier in the day were members of a sniper unit.

The six militants were killed and another was wounded in an IDF rocket strike on a car traveling in the central Gaza Strip.

In an incident in the West Bank city of Nablus early Tuesday, IDF troops shot and killed a Palestinian gunman.

The soldiers operating in the Al-Ein refugee camp saw a Palestinian gunman who fired at them before they returned fire and hit him, the army said.

The militant was identified as 38-year-old Nasser Mabrouk, a member of an offshoot of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
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  1.   JIHAD is their sacred cause in the destruction of Israel 08:47  |  PETER SM 22/08/07
  2.   Correct response 09:06  |  Edifice 22/08/07
  3.   Zionist bloodlust 09:10  |  Joe B. 22/08/07
  4.   Thank You Christiane Amanpour And CNN 09:41  |  chet 22/08/07
  5.   sending children to the launchers -a new sick and twisted low for 09:49  |  don 22/08/07
  6.   sending children to the launchers -a new sick and twisted low for 09:49  |  don 22/08/07
  7.   The Official Israel Liar swings into action 10:32  |  Clickfool 22/08/07
  8.   Great hit, IDF 10:37  |  KUTW 22/08/07
  9.   Pals send their children to death 10:39  |  KUTW 22/08/07
  10.   IDF Propaganda 10:59  |  Myles McSwiney 22/08/07
  11.   Pals firing on kindergarten then sending childrens 11:01  |  maurice 22/08/07
  12.   zionist bloodlust...?????????????? 11:02  |  lito 22/08/07
  13.   Joe B-If qassams have only killed a handful... 11:09  |  Sam 22/08/07
  14.   Enjoy the Virgins 11:10  |  nicholas 22/08/07
  15.   clickfool- sussex boy? 11:11  |  Sam 22/08/07
  16.   TO HEAL THE ANGER OF LAST YEAR LOST 11:13  |  indrajaya 22/08/07
  17.   Clickfool - thanks for the crybaby rant 11:13  |  Theodor 22/08/07
  18.   Clickfool-"swept away by history" 11:15  |  Sam 22/08/07
  19.   The Official Israel Liar swings into action 11:17  |  foolproof 22/08/07
  20.   THE SICK IDF TO ENTERTAIN ISRAELIS 11:17  |  indrajaya 22/08/07
  21.   The Official Arab terrorists Liar swings into action 11:22  |  The real Clickfool 22/08/07
  22.   Just like to point out something...... 11:22  |  Johnboy 22/08/07
  23.   6: Don, it`s not new at all 11:31  |  David Teich 22/08/07
  24.   NICK FERRIMAN I wonder where you will put these children in your 11:36  |  Gil 22/08/07
  25.   on the way to school 11:39  |  indrajaya 22/08/07
  26.   To Clickfool #7 11:41  |  stef 22/08/07
  27.   re # 3 Zionist legitimate response 11:42  |  Amnon C 22/08/07
  28.   JOE B as a "real" Australian you are awfully quiet 11:53  |  PETER SM 22/08/07
  29.   Would "the real clickfool" please stand up. 11:55  |  Sam 22/08/07
  30.   Joe B # 3 11:56  |  ChanahS 22/08/07
  31.   Sorry we have run out of Virgins 11:59  |  Virgin supplier 22/08/07
  32.   Thank you Ehud Barak, thank you Gabi Ashkenazi, thank you the 12:01  |  Anat 22/08/07
  33.   To #4 12:07  |  Sue 22/08/07
  34.   JOE B.Have you had one of those operations and changed your name 12:07  |  PETER SM 22/08/07
  35.   Indrajaya 25 clutching at straws 12:08  |  ChanahS 22/08/07
  36.   25.indrajaya: pal children attend terror school 12:08  |  KUTW 22/08/07
  37.   As usual the Pals should thanks Hamas for the deaths 12:11  |  jean 22/08/07
  38.   31. Virgin supplier 12:14  |  Assistant to VS 22/08/07
  39.   21st century mentality: Killing by remote control. 12:18  |  Andreas 22/08/07
  40.   16. indrajayaANGER 12:19  |  KUTW 22/08/07
  41.   4Chet,what was the name of the CNN program? 12:22  |  lakshmi 22/08/07
  42.   31Virgin supplier I figured out the zionist obsession with 12:27  |  lakshmi 22/08/07
  43.   Israeli lies,one wonders who two children could be expected to 12:29  |  lakshmi 22/08/07
  44.   # 40, KUTW 12:30  |  indrajaya 22/08/07
  45.   Chet #4 12:31  |  ChanahS 22/08/07
  46.   44indrajaya 12:45  |  KUTW 22/08/07
  47.   This is good news: A hamas Drek a day keeps terror at bay! 12:57  |  Roni 22/08/07
  48.   Nice picture above, Hamas funeral, hope to see much more 13:10  |  maurice 22/08/07
  49.   # 46, KUTW 13:17  |  indrajaya 22/08/07
  50.   "Occupation" is over in Gaza 13:20  |  Daniella Shemesh 22/08/07
  51.   We will rock you 13:42  |  Chaim Gorenstein 22/08/07
  52.   LAKSHMI Martyrs&Virgins.Koran sura 56 verses 12 -40 ;etc 13:44  |  PETER SM 22/08/07
  53.   As I Said Before 13:53  |  Mary 22/08/07
  54.   #50 You do seem challenged by the english language Daniella 14:13  |  Johnboy 22/08/07
  55.   GO CHET, GO 14:13  |  Brant 22/08/07
  56.   Indra,the self confessed terrorist 14:13  |  Infidel Too 22/08/07
  57.   indrajaya #49 14:15  |  Nechama 22/08/07
  58.   # 22 Johnboy 14:16  |  Lynn 22/08/07
  59.   Mary 14:16  |  Nechama 22/08/07
  60.   # 41 lakshmi 14:18  |  Lynn 22/08/07
  61.   #7 Clickfool 14:22  |  Josh Korn 22/08/07
  62.   It`s sick 14:23  |  Muhamad 22/08/07
  63.   Cowards,cowards 14:27  |  Benny 22/08/07
  64.   Positive Signs 14:28  |  Alex 22/08/07
  65.   to46#indrajaya, 600 Hizbullah terrorists killed 14:30  |  maurice 22/08/07
  66.   ISRAEL IS DOING ALL IT CAN!!!! 14:30  |  Yaakov Sullivan 22/08/07
  67.   LAKSHMI AND CRUELTY 14:31  |  Brant 22/08/07
  68.   Sending children to die is Ultimate evil 14:32  |  Jorgen 22/08/07
  69.   #22 johnboy`s self-satisfying illogical logic 14:37  |  CK Tan 22/08/07
  70.   # 57, NECHAMA (KILL FIRST, TERRORIST LATER) 14:39  |  indrajaya 22/08/07
  71.   #43 lakshmi`s FAKEY indignation about people she DOES NOT care 14:41  |  CK Tan 22/08/07
  72.   Israel victory over Hizbullah 14:44  |  indrajaya 22/08/07
  73.   to#63 Benny, maybe they don`t want to become martyrs 14:47  |  maurice 22/08/07
  74.   TIMES HAVE CHANGED:BARAK IS BACK!HOORAY! 14:50  |  Ian 22/08/07
  75.   #54 johnboy and his legal faux pas 14:55  |  victor hardman 22/08/07
  76.   #66 yaakov sees all from the empire state 14:57  |  victor hardman 22/08/07
  77.   # 72 Indy and Nasrallah 15:04  |  Lynn 22/08/07
  78.   # 68 Jorgen and outrage against the death of children 15:07  |  Lynn 22