165 Palestinians, including 50 civilians, killed in October
By Arnon Regular
Haaretz, November 1, 2004
The Israel Defense Forces killed 165 Palestinians in the territories in October, including 159 in the Gaza Strip. October was the deadliest month for the Palestinians since operation Defensive Shield in April 2002.
An inquiry by Haaretz found that 50 of those killed (30.3 percent) were civilians, including women, the elderly, children and teenage boys under age 16; 115 (69.6 percent) were killed in the IDF operation launched in the northern Gaza Strip, on the outskirts of the Jebalya refugee camp and in the town of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanun; and 39 percent of those killed in the northern Strip (some 45 people) were civilians.
The operation began in early October and and became the IDF's most wide-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the intifada. Around 500 Palestinians were injured in the course of that operation, and more than 90 homes were demolished.
An additional 17 Palestinians were killed and 50 injured in IDF activity a week ago in the western neighborhoods of the Khan Yunis refugee camp.
At least three girls under age 12 were killed in Khan Yunis in October, one of them inside her school.
In the Rafah region, 10 Palestinians were killed, among them 12-year-old Iman Alhamas, the girl shot by IDF troops near the Girit outpost.
The death toll in the West Bank for October stood at six Palestinians, including a 12-year-old school boy killed in Jenin on Saturday.
There were more than 10 air strikes last month in the Gaza Strip against armed men, most of these in the vicinity of Jebalya and Beit Lahiya. In one air strike in northern Gaza, missiles killed a senior Hamas military wing official, Adnan Al-Ghoul, and his aide.
