news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050802/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians
AP Palestinians Fire on Israeli Protesters By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press Writer Tue Aug 2, 7:45 PM ET SDEROT, Israel - Palestinians fired rockets Tuesday at a gathering of tho usands of Israeli settlers protesting the upcoming Gaza withdrawal, but missed, killing instead a 3-year-old Palestinian boy and wounding nine o ther Palestinians in Gaza.
Witnesses said militants fired three rockets at the demonstration in the Israeli town of Sderot. Two of the rockets fell in Palestinian areas and the third fell in an open field near Sderot.
The dead boy was identified as Yasser Adnan Ashkar, who was killed when o ne of the stray rockets hit his family's home in Beit Hanoun, northeast of Gaza City. Abdel R azek's family was visiting at the time, witnesses said. A few minutes after the rockets were fired, an explosion was heard outsid e the Gaza City house of a former Palestinian Cabinet minister, witnesse s said.
Both officials have been picked by the parliament to investigate widespre ad corruption in the Palestinian Authority. In a separate attack Tuesday, Palestinian militants fired a rocket at an Israeli convoy traveling to the isolated settlement of Netzarim, settler s and the army said.
In recent weeks, however, as the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza approaches, militants have stepped up attacks to try to portr ay the Israeli pullout as a military victory for the Palestinians. Although the Israelis gathered in Sderot had pledged a peaceful protest, settler leaders said they planned to defy a military order and march to Gaza's settlements Wednesday. More than 15,000 police and soldiers took up positions in southern Israel to prevent the marchers from reaching Gaza, which has been declared a c losed military zone. The protest march would be the settlers' second effort in two weeks to br eech the barricades preventing them from getting into the Gush Katif set tlement bloc in southern Gaza. If they fall short again, it would be a d evastating blow to the protest movement. ""It is impossible to stop the masses of Israel who have only one goal, t o reach Gush Katif and overturn this cruel decree," Gaza settler leader Avner Shimoni told Channel 2 TV Tuesday. Some of the protesters in Sderot conceded they had little chance to stop the pullout. "It seems that it is too late," said Alain Bismuth, 40, from the northern town of Haifa. He said he came simply to show there are many Israelis o pposed to the plan. "Everything we do changes things," said Shmuel Lax, 30, of Neve Tsuf.
West Bank settlements who circumvented several roadblocks and approached Gaza. Afte r a tense, noisy confrontation, they were bundled onto a bus and driven away.
Gaza Strip settlements and four in the West Bank in mid-August, uprooting about 9,00 0 settlers. The government says more than half the settlers have agreed to leave voluntarily and expect more to follow before the withdrawal dat e More than 200,000 settlers live in other parts of the West Bank, and thei r leaders fear the Gaza pullout could be the beginning of further withdr awals from land claimed by the Palestinians. Observant Jews believe the West Bank is promised to the Jews in the Bible. On Sunday, the Cabinet will formally vote on the evacuation of the first group of settlements, a government official said. In March, the Cabinet approved the overall withdrawal plan, but agreed to vote again separatel y before the evacuation of each of four groups of settlements.
Palestinian security forces try to keep the crowd away, late Tuesday, Aug. The cause of the explosion is not known but no injuries were re ported. In an earlier incident on Tuesday, a three-year old Palestinian boy was killed and nine Palestinians were wounded when rockets launched by militants misfired and landed in Palestinian areas, rescue workers sa id.
The informati on contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewr itten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associ ated Press.
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