|
Israeli Forces Destroy Gaza Airport, Abduct a Palestinian Activist
 |
| Palestinian homes, now
rubble, thanks to Israeli bulldozers |
GAZA CITY, Jan. 11 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli tanks rolled into a Palestinian-run town in the Gaza Strip early Friday after bulldozing the runway of the Palestinian airport, abducted a Hamas activist during a pre-dawn incursion into another village in the West Bank, as the Palestinian Authority condemned the incursion, news Agencies reported.
Israeli occupation tanks pushed three kilometers (two miles) into Rafah, which lies on the Egyptian border in the southern Gaza Strip, and troops sealed off surrounding roads, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP) Friday, January 11, 2002.
Earlier, twelve Israeli tanks and bulldozers rolled into the Palestinian Authority's airport by the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah and started tearing up the runway early Friday, security sources and witnesses said.
The latest incursion came as Israeli troops abducted an activist from the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, during a pre-dawn incursion into Beit Iba village in an autonomous Palestininian area of the West Bank, an Israeli military spokesman told AFP.
"Our forces have captured a Hamas official, Omar Ishteui, who has been placed in detention," in Israeli-controlled territory, the spokesman said following the raid in the Nablus region of the West Bank.
"The operation was carried out by commando paratroopers and another elite unit, which suffered no losses and has left the area," the spokesman added.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority condemned the latest Israeli incursion calling it “big explosion,” and warning it would lead to violence.
"The Palestinian Authority is warning this Israeli aggression will make a big explosion ... create more violence in the region," said Nabil Abu Rudeina, a senior advisor to Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat.
Colonel Khaled Abu al-Ula, head of the liaison committee in the southern Gaza Strip, charged that the incursion constituted a "reoccupation of the sector."
But an Israeli military spokesman denied that, claiming (Israeli occupation) troops had taken up positions only on roads "under Israeli security control."
He added that Israeli commandos had captured eight Palestinians in the Rafah area, claiming all of them had been wanted for "arms smuggling."
On Thursday, Israeli occupation forces, using bulldozers, destroyed more than 70 Palestinian homes in Rafah.
Rafah's governor Sufian al-Agha said that 73 houses had been flattened and 123 families left homeless, adding that some women and children had been treated for shock and cold after the operation. He called the district a "disaster zone."
In retaliation for the latest Israeli aggressions, Palestinian resistance group, Jihad has said, on Thursday, it is calling off a decision to suspend (resistance) attacks against Israel, BBC’s online news service reported Thursday.
Jihad's announcement came hours after the Israeli troops demolition of Palestinian civilians homes.
In its statement, the al-Quds Brigade - Jihad's armed wing - said it was "not bound by any agreement or co-operation with the Palestinian Authority as far as the ceasefire with Israel is concerned", Qatar-based al-Jazeera television reported.
In Damascus, Jihad leader vowed Thursday to launch attacks against Israel in the "near future," dismissing a truce in the Palestinian Intifada.
“Our position toward resistance has not changed,” Ramadan Abdallah Shallah told the Arabic service of Radio Monte Carlo Thursday.
"It consists of pursuing the jihad (holy war) in all its forms and by all means on our occupied land, Palestine," said Shallah, who resides in Damascus.
"This position will be proven in the near future," he said.
|
