JERUSALEM – Outraged Palestinians vowed revenge yesterday after mistargeted Israeli shells killed 19 people in the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun – including seven women and four children.
“The scene was terrible.
Corpses flew through the windows,” said Ibrahim Atamna, who lost 14 members of his extended family in the assault.
“I found my six-monthold daughter cut in two pieces,” Atamna said.
Israel immediately expressed regret for the mistaken artillery barrage, which was aimed at Palestinian rocket launchers 500 yards away.
“We are sorry for every child killed, either Palestinian or Israeli,” said Maj.
Gen Yoav Galant.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh took a break from bitter negotiations over the formation of a government to donate blood together at a northern Gaza hospital.
Abbas blamed his own countrymen’s launch of rockets from Gaza into Israeli territory. “The launching of the Kassam rocket is useless. The Israelis are using it as a pretext to attack,” Abbas said.
But Aniya called the barrage a “deliberate massacre by the Israeli government,” and other leaders of Hamas, the faction which elected Aniya’s government, urged retaliation.
From his exile in Damascus, Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal urged Palestinians “to activate resistance despite the difficult situation on the ground.” Israeli police said they had gone on high alert.