Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, slammed Monday's Israeli attack
in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, and described it as massacres.
The statements of Abbas came after the army killed eight residents in
Beit Hanoun on Monday morning.
“This is an ugly massacre”, Abbas, currently in Jordan, said and urged the International Community to prevent further escalation in the situation.
“What happened today is an ugly crime against the Palestinian people trying to celebrate the first day of Al Fitir feast”, Abbas said, “This is an ugly crime that does not serve the peace process”.
Eight residents were killed in the attack, among them seven family members; at least thirty residents were injured.
The Israeli army claimed that all of the casualties were armed members of the Popular Resistance Committees, and that soldiers opened fire at them after they fired at a building soldiers occupied earlier.
The recent attack came as several cabinet ministers of the Israeli government demanded the army to control the Philadelphi Route in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
Shas party chairman, Eli Yishai, said that the army should intensify its operations to control the route “in order to stop the army smuggling into the Gaza Strip”.
Also, Israel's Defense Minister, Amir Peretz, said that the army will continue its attacks in the Gaza Strip.
Senior Israeli security sources said that the army will not carry a large scale offensive before Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert heads to the United States after three weeks.
The security sources called for a large scale operation in the Gaza Strip “in order to strike resistance factions, especially Hamas”.
Yet, the sources added that such an operation will be complicated as a result of the density of population in the Gaza Strip which will lead to huge casualties among the residents and among the invading forces.
