Clashes erupted near the border of the Gaza Strip on 26 March 2010, resulting in the death of two Palestinians and two Israelis on Gaza territory near the “buffer zone” (see box below). Several Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were also injured.

According to testimonies collected from eyewitnesses by Gaza human-rights group Al-Mezan, the Israeli army used indiscriminate force during the incident and attacked rescue teams that were trying to evacuate the wounded.

According to eyewitnesses, Israeli forces crossed over into Gaza territory at 2.30pm, passing through the buffer zone and reaching an area 500m east of New Abassan, east of the town of Khan Younis. Here they encountered Palestinian resistance.

Half an hour later Israeli tanks and fighter jets entered the Gaza Strip to support the forces on the ground, shooting live fire and shells in an indiscriminate manner at residential homes and agricultural plots in the area.

At 5.00pm, Israeli forces having retreated and regrouped within the buffer zone, a group of Palestinians from the area arrived to search for the wounded in the agricultural lands adjacent to the buffer zone. At this stage Israeli forces shot at them from within the buffer zone.

Two people were injured: Abed-Rabbo Abu Anza, 17, hit by shrapnel in the shoulder, who managed to retreat from the area; and Haitham Arafat, 21, who was looking for his brother Sliman at the time. Haitham Arafat was seriously injured by shrapnel in the head and elsewhere, but was stranded bleeding where he lay for about an hour.

Repeated attempts were made to evacuate the injured Arafat to the hospital, but Israeli forces shot at rescuers, leading to the further injury of Qadi Abu Hijres, 19, who was shot in the leg.

Finally, half an hour later, residents managed to move Haitham Arafat to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. He entered the operating theatre but died of his wounds at 10pm that night.

At 5.40pm a helicopter shot a missile to the agricultural lands without injuring anyone. At the same time, indiscriminate shooting with light firearms and shelling led to the injury of four other residents in the area, including one 13-year-old boy, Nassim Abu Daka, who was hit in the spine by a bullet and sustained serious internal injuries; Hassan Abu Rida, 21, who was hit by shrapnel in the shoulder just outside his home; and a fighter, who suffered minor injuries from shrapnel.

At 9.30pm Israeli forces re-entered Gaza with tanks and bulldozers. They stayed in the area until 2am on Saturday 27 March, and destroyed an agricultural plot and one house, which was empty at the time.

The view from Israel

According to Israeli military officials, the incursion took place because Palestinians were spotted entering the buffer zone on the morning of 26 March 2010. Israeli media claimed the Palestinians may have been engaged in planting booby traps.

A unit of 20 soldiers of the 12th battalion of the Golani brigade, led by Major Eliraz Peretz, entered the Gaza Strip and were attacked by a group of Palestinian fighters. Peretz and another soldier, Ilan Sviatokowsky, 21, were killed, and two others were injured, one of them seriously.

A military probe showed that a bullet shot by one of the Palestinian fighters had hit a hand-grenade in Major Peretz’s gear, leading to the explosion that killed him. The rest of the force continued fighting and at least one Palestinian fighter was killed.

The “buffer zone”

This is a strip of land along the border, entirely within the Gaza Strip, and includes fertile agricultural lands and farms.

Israel forbids the Palestinians access to it and justifies this on ‘security’ grounds

Along the eastern border of the Gaza Strip, this zone is now 700-800 meters wide and in some places over 1 kilometer.

In many areas it is unclear how broad the buffer zone is and for this reason Palestinians often enter it unknowingly and are shot by Israeli forces on suspicion of ‘terrorist activities’. In other cases Israelis have attacked Palestinians even if they are outside the buffer zone.

Israeli forces enter the buffer zone regularly to ensure that Palestinians do not enter it.

Hamas officials as well as Islamic Jihad and two smaller groups claimed responsibility for the attacks. Hamas has defined the Palestinian action as a defensive response to an Israeli incursion into Gaza territory, rather than as an offensive.

Israeli officials have discussed the possibility of an Israeli “retaliation” to the attacks by the Palestinian group.

Testimony of Abed-Rabbo Abu Anza, 17, about the death of Haitham Arafat:

“At about 2.30pm on Friday 26 March, while I was standing in the street near my home with a number of my friends, I heard a loud explosion. Together with some others, we went to the place of the explosion and saw several wounded people in the home of Shchadeh Abu Anza. I saw Shchadeh Abu Anza with a shrapnel wound in his left arm. The shooting continued and I heard the several other explosions during the next half hour. I heard that there were injured people near the buffer zone. At about 3.30 I decided to go with Haitham Arafat, one of my neighbors, to search for the wounded including his brother, Sliman Arafat. We approached the eastern part of the buffer zone and while searching there, saw Israeli ambulances inside the buffer zone, escorted by army jeeps. About 150 meters away from the buffer zone, while we were searching for the wounded, I heard shooting and a loud explosion nearby. I fell to the ground and then I felt I had been injured in the right shoulder. I crawled a few meters and retreated from the area until I reached Arafat’s home together with another person who had accompanied Haitham. There, one of the medics transferred me to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. I didn’t know what had happened to Haitham Arafat. After about half an hour Haitham arrived at the hospital, injured in various parts of his body. At 10pm I heard he had died of his wounds.”

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• AlMezan -
• buffer zone -
• civilians -
• evacuation -
• Gaza -
• medical care

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