Israel calls off air raid after Gaza protest
Source: Reuters
(Adds comments by Palestinian prime minister, paragraph 8) By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA, Nov 19 (Reuters) - The Israeli army cancelled a planned air raid on the home of a Gaza militant on Sunday after several hundred Palestinians barricaded themselves inside the building, an Israeli military spokesman and witnesses said. Palestinian sources called the protest the first of its kind to have in effect prevented an air strike by the Israeli military, which said it held off to avoid civilian casualties. Israel had served a customary warning to the family of a militant of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) in Jabalya refugee camp to evacuate their home because it would soon be bombed, the spokesman and Palestinian witnesses said. The PRC is one of several militant groups behind daily rocket attacks from Gaza against southern Israel. Hundreds of neighbours and protesters gathered at the site, many barricading themselves inside the house and on its roof in defiance of the warning, witnesses said. "Death to America and death to Israel," the crowd chanted. Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who later arrived at the scene, said the protest was a message to the United Nations Security Council, where the United States on Friday vetoed a resolution condemning Israeli military actions in Gaza. "Those people intervened ... to protect their houses after the Security Council failed to block the Israeli aggression and stop missiles from Israeli warplanes," Haniyeh said. An Israeli military spokesman confirmed the raid had been called off because of the gathering. "We differentiate between innocent people and terrorists," the spokesman said, vowing Israel would continue its strikes against militants and accusing gunmen of using civilians in Jabalya as human shields. Nizar Rayan, a senior Hamas militant who led the Jabalya protest, said Palestinians would continue to rush into every house to be threatened by bombardment by Israel. "We will pay with our lives to protect the houses of the fighters, so they can resist the enemy, assured their homes are being protected," Rayan said. As part of a fight against militants firing rockets, the Israeli military often bombs the homes of gunmen, but usually after warning family members to leave so as to avoid casualties. Israel has stepped up attacks in northern Gaza since a Palestinian rocket strike on Wednesday killed an Israeli woman and seriously wounded a man in the town of Sderot. But Israel has also been under pressure to avoid civilian casualties after an artillery shell killed 19 people, all non-combatants, in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun on Nov. 8. Israel apologised for the civilian deaths and said a technical fault caused a targeting error.
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