Tens of thousands set to march at Gaza funerals

Beit Hanoun (Gaza), Nov 9: Tens of thousands of Gazans were set to march at mass funerals today for 18 people killed by Israeli shelling, an event Palestinians said would be marked in history as a ''Black Day'' of massacre.

The bodies of the dead were expected to be picked up from hospital morgues at mid-morning for a traditional march through the streets and then to mosques. Militants frequently accompany corteges, firing weapons into the air.

Burials and mass prayers were expected to take place towards midday, when organisers estimated tens of thousands of people, if not more, would gather on the streets of Gaza City and the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya.

Yesterday was a day of tragedy beyond imagination and today is a sad day, a black day,'' said Abu Mohammed, a spokesman for the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed faction allied to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement.

''(It is) a stigma on the head of the enemy and the occupation,'' he said, suggesting it would become a rallying call for militants to rise up for years to come against the state of Israel, which left Gaza after 38 years of occupation in 2005.

Amid the mourning, Gazans also vowed revenge against Israel, whose leaders have expressed remorse for the killings, which military officers said were probably the result of artillery rounds overshooting their target.

CENSURE

Yesterday carnage in the town of Beit Hanoun rallied Palestinians after months of factional infighting. A wave of censure in Europe and the Middle East brought new scrutiny on Israel's fighting tactics in a territory it quit last year. The dead included 13 members of one extended family, and among the toll were seven children and four women.

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz ordered a halt to artillery fire in Gaza and for an investigation to completed by today.

But Khaled Meshaal, leader of the governing Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas, urged retaliation.

Hamas declared a partial truce in March 2005 that expired at the year-end. It has not carried out a suicide bombing in Israel since 2004, but some Hamas leaders said they would be resumed.

''All Palestinian groups are urged to activate resistance despite the difficult situation on the ground. Our confidence in our military wing to respond is great,'' said Meshaal, who is based in Damascus.

Hamas's armed wing, decrying Washington's ''political and financial support'' for Israel, appeared to call on Muslims to attack U.S. targets, urging them ''to teach the American enemy harsh lessons''. Such calls have not been heard in the past.

Islamic Jihad and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, two other militant groups spearheading a 6-year-old revolt for Palestinian statehood, also vowed revenge.

While the European Union said it was ''appalled'' by the Gaza shelling, an initial response by the United States stopped short of reprimanding Israel, whose Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is due to meet President George W. Bush in Washington on Monday.

Israeli police declared a high security alert, but the army said there would be no let-up in operations against militants.

The Beit Hanoun killings brought together the moderate Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, who have been at odds over a proposal to create a unity government that might help lift a Western aid blockade.

Hamas has balked at Abbas's demands that it recognise Israel and renounce violence, terms set by foreign peace brokers.

Haniyeh suspended coalition talks after the Beit Hanoun shelling but said he expected them to resume within days. A senior Abbas aide said a unity government could be imminent.

REUTERS