Latest news briefs from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Tuesday, April 20, 2004

(JTA) - Five Palestinians killed in Gaza

Israeli soldiers killed five Palestinians in clashes in the Gaza Strip. Tuesday's clashes broke out after Palestinians, including children, threw stones and firebombs at soldiers deployed at Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip. Some Palestinians attempted to climb onto Israeli armored vehicles. Five Israeli soldiers were hurt in the clashes.

Four Palestinians killed in Gaza

Israeli incursion aimed to stop rocket attacks

By Ibrahim Barzak, Associated Press  |  April 21, 2004

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israeli soldiers killed four Palestinians yesterday in a gunfight meant to stop rocket attacks on Jewish settlements. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel, which killed two Hamas leaders in the last month, would keep targeting militants.

The rocket fire came in response to Israel's assassination of Abdel Aziz Rantisi, leader of the militant group, over the weekend. Rantisi had replaced Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin, who was killed by Israel last month.

Sharon said the two would not be the last to be targeted.

''We will fight terror and we will not let up on them. In that way we got rid of the first murderer, and in that way a few days ago we got rid of the second murderer, and that is not the end," Sharon said.

Yesterday's fighting was the bloodiest in weeks.

It came as Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz visited an Israeli army position in Gaza, promoting Israel's ''unilateral disengagement" plan that includes a pullout from the territory.

Sharon's Likud Party is to vote in a referendum on the plan on May 2.

Sharon and Likud were in the forefront of settlement building for decades, and the ''disengagement" plan calls for dismantling settlements in the West Bank and Gaza for the first time. But Likud leaders are lining up behind it, and the rank and file are expected to vote in favor.

Talking to troops on the Gaza-Egypt border, scene of almost daily clashes as the military searches for arms-smuggling tunnels, Mofaz said the pullout would reduce friction with the Palestinians.

Even after the withdrawal, he said, the Israeli military ''can act freely, while remaining in the area around the Gaza Strip."

Israel has said it would reserve the right to attack militants in Gaza even after its withdrawal.

The clash in northern Gaza appeared to foreshadow the type of sequence Mofaz meant -- Israeli forces entering Gaza to stop Palestinian rocket fire.

The barrage of homemade rockets -- 15 over two days -- was one of the largest in months. The rockets, not much more than hollow tubes with fuel and small explosive warheads, hit two blocks of Israeli settlements, wounding one Israeli and damaging five structures.

Yesterday, Israeli tanks rumbled into a buffer zone between the settlement of Nissanit in northern Gaza and the Palestinian town of Beit Lahiya. The military said some rockets were launched from there.

Hundreds of Palestinians pelted the tanks with rocks and firebombs, and then gunmen joined in. Taking cover behind a mound of sand, they exchanged fire with soldiers on a nearby hill.

Soldiers killed four Palestinians, including at least two gunmen, and 33 were wounded, six critically, hospital officials said. A 17-year-old was shot dead as he climbed on a tank, and four soldiers were slightly wounded, the military said.

The rocket attacks intensified after Israel killed Rantisi and two of his bodyguards in a missile strike Saturday night. Following Rantisi's killing, Hamas vowed to carry out ''100 unique reprisals."

Israel said the killings were part of its campaign to weaken Hamas in advance of the proposed pullout.

In the West Bank, soldiers raided the town of Silwad, where the overall Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal, was born. About 70 people were arrested, Palestinian security officials said.

Mashaal lives in Damascus. Israeli officials have said he could be targeted by Israel.

The soldiers searched the house of Palestinian Cabinet minister Qadoura Fares in Silwad. ''It looks like they're looking for a wanted guy from Hamas," Fares said. ''I told them who I was, but they still searched my house."

Palestinians Killed as Iraeli Forces Raid Gaza Town
Larry James
Jerusalem
21 Apr 2004 , 12:21 UTC
 

Israeli troops shot and killed at least five Palestinians in a clash in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday.

Palestinian witnesses said some 25 tanks rolled into Beit Lahia before dawn as Israeli troops began a house-to-house search for homemade rockets. The operation was conducted in a housing project built for Palestinian security officers.

It was the second incursion in Gaza in as many days. Five Palestinians were killed in clashes when Israeli troops moved into Beit Hanun and Beit Lahia Tuesday afternoon. The soldiers opened fire after a crowd of Palestinians and began throwing stones, firebombs, grenades and other explosive devices at them.

Five Israeli soldiers were wounded in the clash.

The Israeli incursions follow a series of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli settlements in Gaza and Israeli towns in the western Negev region. Militants are reported to have fired some 15 rockets at Israeli targets this week, wounding at least seven Israelis.

Meanwhile, a report in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz says Israel is considering closing the industrial zone located at the Erez border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip. The newspaper quotes unnamed senior Israeli military officers as saying the area is too hard to secure.

One security officer was killed and three others were injured in a suicide bombing at the crossing last Saturday. Five other Israeli security officers have been killed in suicide bombings in the same location since January.

Ha'aretz quoted the officer as saying that Israel may have no choice but to close the industrial zone despite the damage that such a move would do to the livelihoods of thousands of Palestinians.

The Erez industrial zone employs some 4,000 Palestinians. It is one of the few places where thousands of Palestinians and hundreds of Israelis can be found together. It has also been relatively easy for Palestinian suicide bombers to penetrate the crowds that gather daily to cross into Israel from Gaza.

Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon said during a visit to Erez on Tuesday that the industrial zone, which was closed following the bombing last weekend, will not be allowed to reopen until suitable procedures are in place to protect the soldiers.

Last Update: 22/04/2004 06:55

Nine Palestinians, including 5 gunmen, killed in IDF Gaza raid  

By Amos Harel and Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondents and Agencies

Nine Palestinians, five of them armed militants, were killed Wednesday and at least 40 were wounded as Israeli tanks and infantry forces, backed by helicopter gunships, raided the towns of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip.

The nine were killed in gunfights between Israel Defense Forces troops and hundreds of Palestinian demonstrators. Many of the demonstrators were youths who had rushed to the area in an attempt to take part in the clashes.

Together with Wednesday's fatalities, 14 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip in the past two days.

Wednesday's dead included a 13-year-old boy, Yousef D'aur. A 16-year-old from Jabalaya refugee camp, Imad Talake, also died Wednesday of wounds he sustained in an earlier clash.

IDF armored vehicles and Givati Brigade soldiers took over key positions throughout the area during Wednesday's operation, which began before dawn and was aimed at clearing the sites from which Qassam rockets and mortars were fired at towns and kibbutzim in the Negev and Israeli settlements in the northern Gaza Strip. IDF snipers also took up positions on the roofs of houses as Palestinians opened fire at soldiers from inside the buildings.

In Beit Lahia, a column of 25 tanks participated in the pre-dawn raid, as soldiers launched house-to-house searches in a hunt for militants involved in firing the makeshift rockets, Palestinian security officials said.

A number of buildings were damaged along the fringes of the two towns, including a school and a building used by the Palestinian security forces. Private homes were also damaged in the fighting.

An estimated 4,000 residents of the Beit Lahia housing complex surrounded by troops were unable to leave their homes, and the fighting prevented some 3,000 middle school and high school pupils from reaching school, residents said. Some of the teenagers joined in the fighting, throwing rocks at Israeli troops, they said.

IDF troops said that the clean-up operations in the Gaza Strip were likely to continue for another few days. During Wednesday's operation, troops succeeded in preventing another rocket from being fired at Nissanit, they said.

In the settlement of Nissanit, 10 people were injured or suffered shock as a result of the Qassam rocket attacks earlier this week.

Hamas has taken responsibility for the attacks, which were aimed at avenging the assassination of their leaders, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi, but they were also joined by militants from Islamic Jihad and Fatah.

"Everyone we hit was either armed or planting bombs," an IDF spokesman said.

Five of the dead were later identified as armed militant Mohammed al-Ajouri, 18, of Beit Lahia; Suhil al-Haresh, 25, a Fatah commander from the Jabalya refugee camp; Rifat Abu Asira, 28, an Islamic Jihad operative; Mohammed Rantisi, 24, from Beit Lahia; Mohammed Hamato, 17, of the Shata refugee camp; and Nasser al-Houssari, a member of Islamic Jihad.

No Israelis were wounded in the operation.

Of the wounded Palestinians, 10 are listed in moderate to serious condition, according to Gaza medical officials.

Earlier in the day, five Palestinians were wounded when an IDF helicopter fired at a group of Fatah militants. The IDF said that the group had planted a explosive device next to an army patrol vehicle.

There were also a number of incidents in the West Bank but there were no Israeli casualties.

On Tuesday, four Palestinians were killed during disturbances in Beit Hanun and Beit Lahia, according to Palestinian sources. Four soldiers and an officer were wounded during the confrontations.

In Silwad, dozens of suspects were rounded up on Wednesday. Israeli special forces also arrested a wanted Tanzim operative in El-Khader near Bethlehem on Wednesday afternoon, the IDF reported.

Another eight wanted militants were arrested in the Jenin and Nablus areas. One of them was a relative of the Hamas leader in Damascus , Khaled Mashal. 

Two Palestinian children killed

Gaza, , Apr. 22 (UPI) -- Two Palestinian girls were reportedly killed Thursday when Israeli troops withdrew from Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Palestinian sources told the newspaper 4-year-old Assma Abu Klik died of tear-gas inhalation, and 7-year-old Muna Abu Tabak was killed by gunfire. Both girls were killed west of Beit Hanoun.

A military spokesman, however, said troops did not fire at any children or buildings.

At least 26 Palestinian were injured Thursday in clashes between demonstrators and Israeli troops in Gaza , medical sources said.

The casualties occurred when the demonstrators pelted the Israeli troops with stones near the region of Beit Lahya in northern Gaza where a boy was killed Thursday morning.

Friday, 23 April, 2004 , 10:55 GMT 11:55 UK

Three killed in West Bank clash

Northern Gaza has been wracked by violence this week

Three Palestinian militants have been killed by Israeli troops in the town of Qalqilya , in the northern West Bank .

The Israeli army said the men were members of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.

A fourth man, said to be the local leader of the radical group al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, linked to Fatah, was wounded in the attack.

Twenty-six Palestinians have died in recent violence in the Gaza and the West Bank.

The Israeli army said the three militants in Qalqilya were killed after they ignored orders to stop and tried to flee.

Palestinian sources said they were killed in an ambush by undercover Israeli soldiers.

Witnesses identified the wounded man as Attef Shaaban, the local head of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.

Palestinians at the scene said that two of those killed were known members of Fatah, but not militants, while the third was Attef Shaaban's deputy.

Israeli officials said all the men were wanted militants.

On Thursday, three Palestinian militants were killed by Israeli troops in the West Bank town of Tulkarm. Local sources said they were from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

Gaza clashes

Two Israeli soldiers stationed near the Kfar Darom settlement in the southern Gaza Strip were slightly injured in an attack claimed jointly by the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the Popular Resistance Committee.

On Thursday, two Palestinian girls aged four and 11 were killed during an Israeli army incursion into the northern Gaza Strip.

A 16-year-old boy was also killed during a third day of clashes in Beit Lahiya, in which 16 Palestinians have died and at least 20 have been injured.

Israeli military sources say troops, who have now withdrawn, launched the raid to stop rocket attacks into Israel.

The Palestinian teenage boy and 11-year-old girl were both killed by Israeli fire, Palestinian medical sources said. The four-year-old girl died of tear-gas inhalation, Dr Mahmoud al-Assali, the director of Jabalya hospital in Gaza, told the Reuters news agency.

Israeli bulldozers have destroyed several houses and buildings in Beit Lahiya in the past three days, and according AFP a centre for handicapped people was among the buildings blown up. An Israeli army spokesman said the building was unoccupied at the time.

Violence in Gaza has surged since Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced unilateral plans to withdraw Jewish settlements from the coastal territory as part of his disengagement plan.

Israeli airplanes drop anti-terror leaflets over Gaza City

Flyers calling on the residents not to help terrorists. Names of two wanted terrorists included, in hope locals would refuse to cooperate with them.
Amir Buhbut

For the first time in decades, Israeli Air Force planes dropped leaflets over Gaza City on Sunday, calling on the Palestinian population not to help terrorists.

“This is the first time we’re doing this in Gaza,” a military source told Maariv Online. “The Palestinian children read the leaflets out to the adults, who do not always know how to read and write. It is a very effective method.”

The flyers state that helping terrorists does not pay. They also consisted of the names of two wanted men, in the hope that Gaza residents would identify them and refuse to cooperate with them.

This is not the first time that the Israel Defense Forces use leaflets in the campaign against terror. In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, terrorists infiltrated Israel via the Jordanian border. IDF helicopters flew over Jordanian territory and dropped leaflets calling on the residents not to help terrorists or give them shelter in their homes.

Recently, Gaza Strip residents have been fighting against terror. In Rafah, a clash erupted between the clans operating the underground tunnels to smuggle weapons and the clans objecting to this. The opposing groups wanted to stop using the tunnels, realizing that as soon as the IDF finds out about it, Israel would launch military operations that would disrupt life in the town.

(2004-04-25 11:34:37.0)