A boy was killed today in Rafah (in the southern Gaza Strip) by shots fired by Hamas police officers during riots that were triggered by the arrival of humanitarian aid. According to local sources, when a truck loaded with basic necessities entered the Sultan district, many people tried to grab boxes of food and the officers then fired warning shots into the air.
But the crowd, made up of refugees, immediately swelled and the officers fired again to disperse it. At this stage the young man was killed, and a second person - who was injured - died shortly afterwards in hospital. The crowd then rushed towards a nearby police station and attacked it with stones.
Meanwhile, Abu Mazen's declarations hold sway according to which "the sun of freedom and of an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital is inevitably arriving, and is even just around the corner".
And the death toll in the Gaza Strip rises to 20,424, says the Hamas Ministry of Health, while the Israeli army announces that 153 soldiers were killed.
(Unioneonline/ss)
