NABLUS, West Bank, Jan. 3 -- Israeli forces launched military operations
in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank on 11/12/2008. At least nine
Palestinians were killed during Israeli tank and helicopter attacks,
including five members of a family. The simultaneous Israeli operations
were the most significant offensives in the Palestinian territories in
more than two months, residents said.
In Nablus, Palestinian officials said 33 people were injured in clashes,
some of them by rubber-coated steel bullets. The attack in Bani
Suhailah, east of Khan Younis, killed Karima Fayad, her daughter Asma, 20,
and sons Sami, 28, and Ahmed, 31, when tank shells struck their home.
Blood soaked the walls of the two-story home and olive trees in the back
yard.
As the bodies were removed in white coffins, neighbors and relatives
wailed and shouted, "There is no God but Allah!" "I didn't get to say
goodbye," cried Maria Fayad, who lost her stepmother and three siblings in
the attack. Another Fayad relative died in clashes nearby. "How can they
all be gone in one minute?"
