RAFAH, March 4, 2004, (WAFA) – Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) murdered Thursday two Palestinian citizens, including a child, wounded 16 others and demolished six houses, witnesses, medical and security sources reported.... Witnesses told WAFA that at 02:00 a.m., at least 20 Israeli tanks, armoured vehicles and bulldozers, backed by Apache helicopters, swept into the southern neighbourhood of Tal Zo''rob, amid intensive gunfire, killed two citizens, wounded dozens and bulldozed several houses.... Mohammed Othman, a school-boy, was shot dead and four others were wounded when Israeli tanks opened fire at Al-''Omaria School, witnesses said.... "The Israelis shot my friends. They were carrying their school bags… their blood showered the bags," one of the colleagues told WAFA correspondent.... Mohammed Othman, 14, was killed after being shot with a live gunshot in the chest. Four others children were wounded," Al-Najjar Hospital sources, said.... Earlier on Thursday, an Israeli tank fired a missile at the house of Awni Kollab, in the area of Bashit, killing him and injuring eleven of his family.... "Tens of citizens rushed to the house and removed Kollab''s daed body and vacated more than ten other wounded," eyewitness, one of the Kollab's neighbours said.... Al-Najjar Hospital sources, in Rafah, reported that Awni Kollab, 32, was killed with shrapnel and eleven members of his family were also wounded including his 27-year pregnant wife and a child in a critical condition.... Another child identified as Mohammed al-Najjar, 14, was moderately wounded with a live gunshot, medics said.... Israeli tanks also targeted Palestinian ambulances preventing them from reaching the scenes to evacuate the victims, the Red Crescent Society (RCS) sources said.... "Israeli soldiers detained a number of paramedics in a medical centre in the neighbourhood of Tal Zo''rob," said Ashraf el-Khateeb, chief of RCS''s ambulances centre in Rafah.... During the terrorist incursion, IOF also demolished Six houses, witnesses and security sources said.... "We fled our houses to avoid Israeli killing, bulldozers were demolishing our houses while tanks were heavily shelling," Mohammed Zo''rob told WAFA.... Ahmad Hijazi, another resident spoke with Wafa over the phone saying that the Israeli soldiers broke into his house and locked more than 20 people in one room, including women and children.... “Three children were suffocated due to inhaling the dust and smoke of the explosions of the Israeli missiles," Hijazi said, adding, "The ambulance we called was not able to reach our house.”
IOF heavy gunfire barred Paramedics and ambulances from reaching the area said the witnesses.... Palestinian security sources confirmed that several Israeli tanks and armored vehicles invaded Rafah from different directions, adding that the number of the demolished houses is mounting.... Moreover, Israeli tanks and bulldozers flattened vast areas of arable land in Al-Salam neighbourhood of Rafah.... - -