BEIT HANUN, Gaza Strip (AFP) - Palestinian mothers and wives braved [you gotta be kidding] Israeli helicopter gunships to rescue 15 fighters besieged in a northern Gaza mosque, using their heavily veiled bodies as human shields.

"We risked our lives to free our sons," said Um Mohammed, a woman in her 40s, after the daring rescue that followed protests against a bloody Israeli operation in the northern Gaza Strip that has killed 24 Palestinians.

Militants from various armed groups, including Hamas, had been besieged in the al-Nasr mosque since Thursday, seeking protection from Operation Autumn Clouds, one of the biggest Israeli incursions in Gaza for the past four months.

Braving gunfire and tanks, around 400 women and other demonstrators gathered to protest [this is a protest? Protests usually involve carrying placards, not rescuing terrorists.] against the Israelis at one of the entrances to the town. Three of them, one a woman, were killed and another 25 people were wounded, medics said.

Around 200 women then left the main protest to march on and enter the mosque around 700 metres (yards) away to collect the gunmen, before walking out again, cloaking the fighters in the middle of their heavily veiled ranks. [They are now what's colloquially known as "targets".]

None of the gunmen could be seen amid the dozens of women, who were dressed for the most part from head to toe in black in the religiously conservative Gaza Strip.

Throughout the rescue bid, Israeli helicopter gunships opened fire -- not specifically at the women, but intending to scare them and separate their ranks, but without success. Two women were wounded, medics said.

A source in Hamas confirmed that its armed wing had orchestrated what he called a "complex security operation" to secure the release of the besieged fighters.

The women and fighters they were protecting ran as far as Izbat Beit Hanun, an area northwest of the town not being occupied by Israeli army.

"Hundreds of us entered the mosque and surrounded the resistance fighters to protect them," said one of the women, 21-year-old Nidaa al-Radih.

One rescued fighter was triumphant. "We are free, we are free!" he shouted before running off to safety...

...Some 60 gunmen were reported to have fortified themselves inside the mosque late Thursday after the IDF began encircling the town as part of the operation to stop the launching of Qassam rockets from the area. Palestinian sources reported that the gunmen fired at the troops from within the windows of the mosque and that the IDF responded with stun grenades and teargas to try to force the gunmen to surrender...

...Military sources say that there were large amounts of arms inside the mosque, and that among the gunmen were several senior wanted Palestinians who headed the Qassam rocket infrastructure in northern Gaza...

...Israeli military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich said: "We saw crowds of women. Behind the women hid some of the militants. Some of them were even dressed up as women: we have footage. [Which happens to be how Arafat escaped Beirut way back when.]

"Unfortunately because the militants shot at our forces, sometimes we had to respond."...

...Those women were not innocent bystanders nor human shields caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Human shields implies that they were reluctanly dragged in. They were willing terrorist helpers. They ran to protect terrorists in order that these terrorists could commit more killings. Those women are no different to those who help transport terrorists or those who hide terrorists in their home. They're responsible for any death and destruction the terrorists cause.

That the terrorists were willing to disguise themselves as women to escape, knowing full well if Israeli troops spotted them all the women would be endagered, shows just how much the terrorists care about their "civilians."