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PA says US condones / encourages deaths of Palestinian civilians

Jerusalem: 11 October, 2003 (IAP News) The Palestinian Authority has asked for a speedy international intervention to stop "Israeli massacres against our civilian population." 

"The Palestinian Authority urges the international community to step in to stop these massacres which target innocent people, including women and children," said Palestinian spokesman Nabil Abu Ruedina. 

He told the Palestinian news agency that Israel was indulging in wanton killings of Palestinian civilians and destruction of their property. 

"This rampage of killing and destruction is a war crime which should be strongly condemned by the international community.

Abu Rudeina said the Zionist regime wouldn't have embarked on the latest spare of killing and destruction in the Gaza Strip had it not been for "American acquiescence and connivance." 

He was referring to the rampageous onslaught by Israeli occupation troops, backed by tanks and armored vehicles in Rafah at the southern edge of the Gaza Stirp Friday in which at least seven Palestinians were killed and as many as 50 other were injured. 

Palestinian medical sources said four of the seven people killed were innocent civilians, including 8-year-old Ibrahim Ahmed Qrainawi, and 15-year-old Sami Talal Salah both of which were shot dead. Qrainawi shot in the abdomen while Salah was hit in the head by shrapnel from a tank shell. 

Twenty people, including eight children, sustained serious wounds. One body arrived in hospital with the head nearly blown off. 

The Israeli occupation army said the purpose of the rampage, unprecedented since the outbreak of the Intifada more than three years ago, was to destroy tunnels used for smuggling weapons to the Gaza Strip through the Egyptian borders. 

No tunnels, however, had been uncovered.