Al-Zaytoun Neighborhood Massacre

In an unprecedented ground, sea, and air assault on Gaza, resulting in the martyrdom of 13 citizens and the injury of 65 others, occupation forces launched an incursion on Sunday, January 26, 2003, east of Gaza. They reached the neighborhoods of Al-Shujaiya and the town of Abasan, where they occupied two police centers and destroyed four bridges connecting the town of Beit Hanoun to the Gaza Strip after fierce clashes with resistance fighters.

Witnesses told the correspondent of the "Islam Online" website: "More than 60 Israeli tanks and armored vehicles set out from the Netzarim settlement under the air cover of Apache helicopters and bombed the homes of citizens in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, which is considered one of the strongholds of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas." The occupation forces turned homes into military barracks and used dozens of citizens as human shields.

A real war broke out between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants who resisted the occupation tanks with RPG rockets and explosives, in addition to machine guns. The clashes resulted in the martyrdom of 13 Palestinians.