Palestinians kill their own in attack on Israelis
Militants attacking an Israeli armoured bulldozer inadvertently killed three other Palestinians today.
The attack came during an Israeli operation to destroy weapons-smuggling tunnels from Egypt.
The roadside bomb in the Rafah refugee camp went off a few yards from where the bulldozer was piling up dirt in a crowded residential area.
No Israelis were injured but three Palestinian men 200 yards away were hit by shrapnel, one so severely it took off half his skull.
Ten people were wounded, including a Reuters TV cameraman, according to witnesses and hospital officials.
The Hamas militant organisation said two of the casualties in Rafah were its members, and the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed one of the dead men.
The extensive Israeli army operation in the Gaza-Egypt border area began before dawn today.
The Rafah border area is strewn with land mines and other roadside bombs planted by militants.
The bulldozers and minesweepers scour the area to destroy tunnels used by Palestinians to smuggle arms from Egypt into the Gaza Strip.
