Palestinians: Israeli strike in Gaza kills 18

updated 6:51 a.m. ET Nov. 8, 2006

BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip - Israeli tank shells ripped through a residential neighborhood in the northern Gaza Strip early Wednesday, killing at least 18 members of an extended family, including eight children as they slept, Palestinian health officials and witnesses said.

Hamas’ exiled leader, Khaled Mashaal, said a 2005 truce with Israel was finished and appealed to all Palestinian factions to resume attacks: “There must be a roaring reaction so that we avenge all those victims.” Two Palestinian militant groups promised to step up suicide attacks in response.

Hamas’ military wing in Gaza urged Muslims worldwide to attack U.S. targets, a call disavowed by the Hamas-led Palestinian government.

Israel halted artillery attacks in Gaza while it investigated the shelling, but said operations would continue against Palestinian rocket squads. An Israeli military commander said the investigation was focusing on the apparent failure of a targeting mechanism.

The tank shells landed around a compound of four apartment buildings in Beit Hanoun, the town Israel took over for a week in pursuit of militants who launch rockets at southern Israel. More than 50 Palestinians, most of them gunmen, were killed before Israeli troops withdrew on Tuesday, and the rocket attacks resumed immediately.

After the Wednesday shelling, gaping holes were torn into the structures, owned by four brothers from the al-Athamna family who lived side by side. Blood pooled in front of the houses.

Asma al-Athamna, 14, said her family was woken early Wednesday by the sound of an explosion. Her mother quickly ordered everyone out of the house. “She was saying, ’There is shelling.”’

Another shell landed as the family fled, killing the girl’s mother, older sister and brother-in-law. “They were killed when they came out of our house,” the weeping girl said, speaking from her hospital bed. “I was behind them and I was wounded. “

Bits of dismembered bodies were plastered to walls of the damaged buildings and lying on the ground. A woman’s headscarf, children’s boots and slippers, and a pair of jeans — all burnt — were strewn outside.

‘God avenge us’
“I saw people coming out of the house, bleeding and screaming. I carried out a young girl covered with blood,” said 35-year-old Rahwi Hamad. “We saw legs, hands, parts of heads stuck to the wall. There was a smell of blood and the stench of burnt bodies.”

A young man, standing in the bloodied alleyway, said an infant girl had been blown to pieces. “I tried to look for her head, I tried to look for her head,” he shrieked, then sank to the ground, weeping.

Suhaib Salem / Reuters A Palestinian woman cries Wednesday inside her damaged house after Israeli shelling at Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip.

Weeping relatives gathered outside the homes. One man dipped his hand in victims’ blood and smeared it all over his face. “God avenge us, God avenge us,” he wailed.

Khaled Radi, a health ministry official, said all the dead belonged to the al-Athamna family. About 60 people were wounded, including 26 children, the ministry said.

Both Defense Minister Amir Peretz and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed regret at the loss of civilian life and offered humanitarian and medical assistance to the Palestinian Authority.

The Israeli army said it had fired artillery at suspected rocket launching sites early Wednesday, but the targets were far from the apartment compound.

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