The Israeli occupation army has killed and maimed scores of defenseless Palestinian civilians in the central Gaza Strip as Palestinians are celebrating the Eidul Fitr feast, the holiday marking the end of the holy
month of Ramdan.

Israeli troops backed by at least 50 tanks thrust into the Bureij refugee camp south of Gaza City early Friday, killing at least 10 Palestinian civilians, including two pairs of brothers, and injuring scores of others.

Three other civilians were killed by an Israeli missile fired from a US-made Apache helicopter, eyewitnesses said. One of the victims is reportedly an elderly woman who was shot dead.

Eyewitnesses and Palestinian Authority officials described the killing as "a real massacre of civilians."

Palestine Chronicle reported this morning,  that Ahmad Rabah, the head of the Martyrs Hospital in the area said that the Israelis blocked the movement of ambulances, which contributed to the increase in the number of dead.

The number of wounded has been estimated at 20, of whom five are in serious condition, the report stated.

"Over half of those killed could have been saved if the Israeli army allowed them transportation to a hospital," Rabah said, adding that five of them were left to bleed to death while the residents put up a good fight to save
them.

Some of the bodies, including that of a ten-year-old child, were reportedly badly mutilated and disfigured by Israeli shells and rockets.

Eyewitnesses said Israeli tanks and helicopters fired artillery shells and rockets on densely populated neighborhoods, destroyed many homes on residents inside.

One tank shell hit a home, killing four members of the same family.

Buriej is a crowded camp, with over 20,000 refugees who were driven from their homes in Palestine in 1948. The camp underwent a massacre in the early 1950's at the hands of an Israeli army unit led by now Israel' s Prime
Minister, Ariel Sharon.

"This is the Eid message of the Israeli government, we said repeatedly that Sharon and Mofaz and other Israeli war criminals are the natural successors of (Nazi Leader Adolph) Hilter and other leaders of the Third Reich," said a very angry Yousef Magadma, a Palestinian teacher.

"Now the world shouldn't blame us when we try to defend ourselves and our children against this evil terror by a state that claims to be a victim of terror."

Following the massacre, some angry Palestinians shouted "Nazis, Nazis, Nazis."

Earlier, in an obvious attempt to justify impending plans to carry out atrocities in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon alleged that members of the Al-Qaeda organization were operating in the Gaza Strip.

The allegations were promptly and vehemently denied by Palestinian officials and leaders of the major resistance groups in the Gaza Strip.

"This is a the sort of justification the Israeli leadership is trying to market for the Americans to launch a strike against the Gaza Strip," said Preventive Security Chief in Gaza, Rashid Abu Shbak.

"This is a vile disinformation campaign aimed at finding a pretext to slaughter more defenseless men, women and children."

Meanwhile, Hamas, Fatah and the Islamic Jihad, the three major resistance groups in Palestine have vowed to avenge the "Eidul Fitr massacre."

"We are not going to talk much, you will see our revenge soon," said one Fatah leaders who asked for anonymity.
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