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Israel Invades Bethlehem
BETHLEHEM, West Bank, Oct 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A Palestinian policeman was killed and 23 others were injured Friday morning in the West Bank as Israeli invaded the city of Bethlehem, news agencies said.
Twenty-two Palestinians were wounded; five seriously, during fierce gun battles after Israel mounted an invasion overnight deep into the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem, official Palestinian radio reported.
An Israeli defense ministry official vowed that Israeli forces would stay in Bethlehem "as long as necessary" to "complete their mission."
Early Friday, 20 Israeli tanks rolled two miles (three kilometers) into Bethlehem, Palestinian News Agency (WAFA) reported.
They stormed in from two directions, Jabel Hindata and Rachel's Tomb, before a column of armored cars surrounded a refugee camp and Israeli troops were said to have occupied Bethlehem's Paradise Hotel.
"These incursions had been decided upon following Palestinians firing of mortars towards Gilo," an Israeli military spokesperson said, referring to the Israeli settlement on the fringe of illegally occupied East Jerusalem.
Gilo has often been on the frontline in the year-old Intifada, or uprising, with Israeli troops storming the neighboring majority Christian town of Beit Jala in August, allegedly to halt attacks on illegal Israeli settlement.
Israel's invasion into Bethlehem was the latest response to the killing Wednesday of hawkish Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
The killing of Zeevi, a hardliner who wished to expel Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, was the first Palestinian targeted killing of an Israeli minister in the Jewish state's 53-year existence.
In the days leading up to the death of the minister, Israel assassinated three Palestinian political leaders; bringing the total number of Palestinian political figures assassinated by Israel this year to 59.
The international community, human rights groups and the U.S. - Israel's staunchest ally - have condemned Israel's policy of assassinations.
Said Abdel Khader al-Akra was shot in the stomach in the autonomous Palestinian section of Ramallah, which was invaded and occupied by Israel Thursday.
Meanwhile a Palestinian boy, Bassem al-Mobasher, 13, was killed when an Israeli tank shell he was handling exploded in the southern Gaza Strip refugee camp of Khan Yunis, Palestinian security sources said.
Israeli tanks had fired the shell into the camp earlier in the day, the sources said.
The two deaths bring the toll for the year-old Intifada, or uprising, to 887, including 687 Palestinians - mostly under the age of 18, according to Western figures.
The Israeli army raided the Palestinian cities of Ramallah and Jenin Thursday, killing two Palestinian men and a 12-year-old schoolgirl, while three Fatah activists died when their car burst into flames, in an apparent Israeli assassination mission.
A Palestinian gunman avenged their deaths Thursday night, shooting dead an Israeli tourist and wounding several others in the southern West Bank near Jericho.
An Israeli soldier was shot in the stomach and seriously injured, while stationed near Rachel's Tomb at the entrance to the autonomous Palestinian town, an Israeli spokesman said.
An Israeli cabinet member warned Friday that Israel's military offensive would grow if the Palestinians did not hand over the suspects in Zeevi's murder.
"The clashes risk worsening if the Palestinian Authority does not extradite the assassins of Zeevi and declare all terrorist organizations active in the autonomous territories outside the law," Minister-without-portfolio Tzipi Livini said.
The Palestinian Authority has moved to outlaw groups that Israel wants to see behind bars, and has arrested a dozen suspects in Zeevi's target killing, but refuses to extradite them.
Israel refuses to extradite Israelis suspected of killing Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.
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