Palestinians Bury 12 in Mass Funeral
May 2, 2003 07:59 AM EDT 

A woman talks to a militant at the Shijaia 
neighborhood of Gaza after Israeli troops stormed 
the district to blow up the house of suspected
militants, Thursday, May 1, 2003. At least 12
Palestinians including two children were killed 
Thursday. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets Friday for the mass funeral of 12 Palestinians who were killed during a raid by Israeli troops on a Hamas stronghold following a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. 

Gunmen marching among the crowd called for revenge, and one armed militiaman speaking from a loudspeaker warned the new Palestinian government against cooperating with a fresh peace plan or trying to disarm Palestinian militias. 

Palestinian officials and Israeli opposition leaders accused Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of using Thursday's raid in Gaza to undercut the new Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, before he has a chance to fulfill a promise to get armed groups to stop their fight against Israel. 

The raid came just a day after international mediators presented the so-called "road map" to peace. 

A Sharon adviser said Israel would not halt its anti-terror campaign and would not give Abbas, sworn in Wednesday, a grace period to crack down on militants. 

A 13th person killed in the Gaza battle, 2-year-old Amer Ayad, was buried Thursday. The boy was hit by a bullet to the head while he was near a window in his home, his father said. 

The other dead were eight gunmen and four civilians - two boys, ages 13 and 15, a taxi driver and a mentally disabled man. 

Mourners carried their bodies on stretchers from a hospital morgue and walked down a main street. 

A gunman from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militia linked to Abbas' own Fatah party, stood on the roof of a moving car and used a loudspeaker to shout a message for the new Palestinian prime minister. 

"To everyone who can hear our bullets, our message is: Our weapons are our dignity and any hand that takes our weapons will be cut off," he said, after firing off a few rounds. 

He urged the new Palestinian government not to fight the militants: "Don't leave the trench of resistance. We are facing the same enemy." 

On Wednesday, the Hamas militant group and the Al Aqsa brigade jointly carried out the suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv cafe, killing a waitress and two musicians. 

Israel responded with the Gaza raid, and more than 200 Palestinian gunmen fought back with anti-tank missiles, grenades and homemade explosives. Sixty-five Palestinians were wounded, including 15 critically. 

Eight Israeli soldiers were wounded, including one who was in serious condition, the military said. 

The peace plan aims to achieve Palestinian statehood within three years. The Palestinians have accepted the plan, while Israel has expressed major reservations. 

The road map starts with a Palestinian crackdown on terror groups and an Israeli freeze on Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It also calls for a gradual Israeli pullout from the autonomous Palestinian zones its troops have reoccupied during 31 months of fighting. 

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell was expected to visit soon, perhaps next week, to push the plan. 

In an interview with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot, President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, urged Israelis and Palestinians to end fighting and siphon some momentum for change from the fall of Iraq's Saddam Hussein. 

"The president expects all countries in the region, including Israel, to take advantage of the opportunity that has been given to them to build a Middle East with more hope and more peace," she told the paper. 

Meanwhile, the Haaretz newspaper reported Friday that Israel would bar entry to foreign pro-Palestinian activists after word came that two Britons were behind the bombing in Tel Aviv this week. The two apparently took part in activist gatherings in Gaza. 

Separately, four Israeli border policemen were charged Thursday with fatally beating an 18-year-old Palestinian in the West Bank city of Hebron four months ago in an apparent act of revenge for the deaths of four members of their paramilitary unit.