May 12, 2004

The IDF fatally shoots at least 7 Palestinians (including 1 man who is shot, bleeds to death inside his home), wounds at least 50 (including 1 Palestinian journalist), demolishes 2 apartment buildings in ongoing clashes in Gaza City before withdrawing in the afternoon, after Egyptian mediators secure the return of the bodies of 6 IDF soldiers killed on 5/11. In Rafah, however, Islamic Jihad mbrs. fire a rocket propelled grenade into the IDF-controlled buffer zone (the Philadelphi Route) along the border with Egypt, hitting an APC carrying explosives for demolishing smugglers’ tunnels and Palestinian homes, killing 5 IDF soldiers, injuring 3. The IDF also conducts arrest raids nr. Bethlehem, Tulkarm; fires on residential areas of Balata r.c. (barring ambulances fr. reaching the wounded, arresting 1 injured man). (AFP, MM 5/12; PSCT, VOI, VOP 5/12 in WNC 5/14; BBC, HA, MM, NYT, PCHR, WP, WT 5/13; VOI 5/13 in WNC 5/15; QA 5/13 in WNC 5/18; PR 5/19; PCHR 5/20)