ISRAEL SHELLS WITHIN 100 METERS OF GAZA HOMES
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military has been shelling Palestinian
targets within 100 meters of homes in the Gaza Strip.
A petition filed in Israel's High Court asserted that the military has
intensified its shelling of suspected Palestinian missile launch sites in
the northern Gaza Strip. The petition by six Israeli and Palestinian groups
said Israeli artillery batteries have been allowed to designate targets up
to 100 meters from residential areas.
The petition, which could be heard on Monday, said that until early
April the Israel Army had banned shelling of targets within 300 meters of
Palestinian homes. The organizations demanded that Israel restore the
so-called safety zone.
"Previously, the safety zone had been 300 meters," the organizations
said in a statement on Sunday. "Last week, the order resulted in the loss of
life."
The petitioners, suing Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Chief of Staff
Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, argued that the fragmentation range of U.S.-origin
artillery shells was 100 meters. They said the Israeli artillery batteries
remained imprecise and that shells could veer dozens of meters from their
target.
Last week, a seven-year-old Palestinian was killed when an artillery
shell fell on her home in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. The
organizations said dozens of shells have landed several meters from
Palestinian houses.
On Sunday and Monday, Palestinian gunners fired at least four Kassam
missiles into Israel. Israeli artillery batteries responded with heavy fire
toward the northern Gaza Strip.
"The organizations emphasize that the shelling is not a defensive
measure, directed at the source of Kassam rocket fire at the time the
rockets are launched at Israel," the petitioners said in a statement, "but
shelling into 'the Kassam launching spaces," broad areas from which -- it is
estimated -- Kassam rockets had previously been fired. Thus, the attack is
Israeli army initiated, intending to punish and/or deter, and not as
self-defense."
