Auto-SummaryAt least 13 Palestinians were killed and 25 wounded in five explosions in Gaza City's Shajaiyeh section, believed to be caused by either an Israeli air strike or a tank shell attack. The explosions occurred near the Gaza-Israel border, with Israeli helicopters hovering overhead. Palestinians are searching for victims and bringing casualties to Shifa Hospital. The Israeli military has not commented. Meanwhile, Israel is planning to alter the route of the West Bank separation barrier, aiming to run along the Green Line and encircle some Jewish settlements on the "Palestinian" side. Palestinians object to the barrier, calling it an "apartheid wall." Egypt has demanded a comprehensive cease-fire before sending experts to Gaza, threatening to withhold assistance if Israel does not accept.
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Explosions Kill at Least 13 in Gaza City
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By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Five explosions rocked a field in Gaza City used for training by anti-Israeli militants early Tuesday, killing at least 13 Palestinians and wounding 25 others, hospital officials and residents said.
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Witnesses could not say for sure what caused the blasts, but many said it was either an Israeli air strike or a tank shell attack. The scene of the explosions is near the border with Israel, and Israeli attack helicopters hovered overhead.
The Israeli military refused to comment.
Palestinians were seen searching the blacked-out area with candles and flashlights, looking for victims.
Ambulances and cars brought casualties to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Hospital officials said at least 13 people were killed and 25 wounded.
The blasts went off in the Shajaiyeh section of Gaza City, a known stronghold of the violence Islamic Hamas.
On Monday, Israel's defense minister Shaul Mofaz said he is moving another planned section of the West Bank separation barrier closer to Israel. Israel says it needs the barrier to keep out suicide bombers.
The barrier is part of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites)'s contentious plan of "unilateral disengagement" from the Palestinians, including a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) and the evacuation of four small West Bank settlements in 2005. Sharon has said he wants to keep several large West Bank settlements as part of any future peace deal.
One-third of the 425-mile barrier has already been built in the northern West Bank, but army planners have redrawn parts of the remaining route further to the south to comply with the court order. Palestinians have complained that the wall's path in the north has cut off Palestinians from their land and other services.
Israel began construction of the southern segment of the barrier after Palestinian suicide bombers infiltrated across the unprotected line there and blew up two buses in the desert city of Beersheba last week, killing 16.
The original plan in the south was to cut into the West Bank in several places to include some Jewish settlements on the "Israeli" side, but Mofaz said Monday this was being changed.
"In light of the Supreme Court (rulings), we decided to plan another route that in principle ran along the Green Line," Mofaz told Army Radio, referring to Israel's old frontier, before it captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war.
Jewish settlements that find themselves on the "Palestinian" side will be encircled by separate fences, Mofaz said.
Sharon reportedly wanted to include some of these settlements on the Israeli side. A Sharon adviser, Raanan Gissin, said no final decision has been made, but that he did not expect major changes to the route proposed by Mofaz.
The separation barrier has disrupted the lives of thousands of Palestinians, cutting them off from schools, jobs and land. Earlier this year, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered changes in the planned route to ease hardships.
Palestinians object to the barrier in principle, calling it an "apartheid wall" meant to dictate borders, effectively annexing parts of the West Bank to Israel.
The world court has issued an advisory ruling calling the barrier illegal, saying it should be torn down. Israel dismissed the ruling as one-sided and politically motivated, but Israel's attorney general has said the ruling can't be ignored, and the Supreme Court ordered the government to state how it is dealing with it.
Israel broke ground Sunday on a 25-mile stretch that officials said would run along the Green Line.
Mofaz on Monday referred to a separate 35-mile stretch, security officials said. The original route would have effectively annexed about 20 square miles of West Bank land.
Also Monday, visiting Egyptian officials told Palestinian leaders that they would not send experts to Gaza to help train Palestinian forces to take control there unless Israel accepts a cease-fire, a Palestinian official said.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and intelligence chief Omar Suleiman met Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) to discuss cease-fire efforts and the planned Israeli pullout from Gaza.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath told The Associated Press that the Egyptians called for Palestinian unity. Egypt has been trying unsuccessfully for more than a year to forge a common Palestinian declaration of a truce in the conflict with Israel.
Shaath said Egypt is calling a meeting at the end of the month with all the Palestinian factions to press the truce idea.
"Until Israel accepts a comprehensive cease fire, they will not send their experts to Gaza," Shaath said.
Israel has not been approached about a new cease-fire. Last summer Palestinians declared a unilateral truce, but it collapsed after a few weeks amid Palestinian attacks and Israeli retaliation.
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