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Israel Army Abducts 40, Destroys Houses In Jenin Raids
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| Dozens
of Israeli tanks, backed by helicopter gunships, rolled into
Jenin , opening fire on Palestinians.
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JENIN,
West Bank, May 17 (IslamOnline & News agencies) - Israeli
occupation forces withdrew late Friday from Jenin after sweeping the
West Bank town and its devastated refugee camp overnight in a raid to
abduct suspected resistance activists.
Two
Palestinians were wounded by tank shells in the operation, according
to Palestinian hospital and security sources, which saw dozens of
tanks backed by helicopter guns hips storm the northern West Bank
area, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The
army withdrew from Jenin city in the late afternoon, Palestinian
witnesses said, after pulling out of the camp in the morning.
Some
40 Palestinians were abducted during the raid, the security sources
said, which sent plumes of gray smoke rising from shelled buildings.
Israeli
units are still in positions outside the camp, they added.
Among
those detained inside the city was Kamal Abu Al-Wafa, a leader of an
offshoot of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah group, the
al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the security sources and witnesses told AFP.
Al-Wafa
was the only wanted man among those arrested, the sources said.
At
the camp, the soldiers destroyed the house of an official of the
Islamic resistance militant group Hamas, Jamal Abu Haija, according to
witnesses.
When
soldiers failed to find Abu Haija, they turned out his wife and
children and threw grenades into the house, setting it on fire,
witnesses said.
Separately,
a Palestinian boy was killed and two others wounded, one seriously, by
a mine explosion Friday in the flattened refugee camp, a hospital
source said.
Murad
al-Ghul, 16, was killed from the blast, while Saadeh Saleh, 15,
suffered severe wounds to his legs, the source said. The third
teenager was not seriously hurt, the source said.
The
Palestinians accused Israeli forces of committing war crimes and
massacring civilians during April's major reoccupation of the Jenin
refugee camp. Israel has denied the accusation.
More
than 50 Palestinians, mostly civilians, as well as 23 Israeli soldiers
were known to have been killed in the battle for the camp, which is
home to about 15,000 people.
Earlier Friday, the Israeli army reoccupied Jenin and its refugee
camp, hours after launching incursions into Nablus, El Bireh, Tulkarem
and Taluza.
A
security source said dozens of Israeli tanks, backed by helicopter
gunships, had rolled into the Palestinian town and the refugee camp,
opening fire on Palestinians, and that fighting with armed Palestinian
resistance activists was continuing one hour after the fresh incursion
started, AFP reported.
The
Israeli forces have committed war crimes and have massacred hundreds
of Palestinians during their April 3-13 deadly offensive on the Jenin
refugee camp.
After
a week-long investigation, Human Rights Watch (HRW) charged in a
report issued Friday, May 3, that evidence suggests that the Israeli
occupation army committed war crimes in the military offensive in the
Jenin refugee camp.
In
its forty-eight page report, Human Rights Watch identified a large
number of dead Palestinians and further found that the Israeli army
used Palestinian civilians as "human shields" and used
indiscriminate and excessive force during the offensive.
"The
abuses we documented in Jenin are extremely serious, and in some cases
appear to be war crimes," said Peter Bouckaert, senior researcher
at Human Rights Watch and a member of the investigative team.
Throughout
the Jenin refugee camp, at least 140 buildings were completely
leveled, many of them multi-family dwellings, and more than 200 others
were severely damaged, leaving an estimated 4,000 people, more than a
quarter of the population, homeless, said the report.
Also,
Israeli tanks rumbled into Nablus and El Bireh, near Ramallah,
Palestinian officials said, adding that around 15 Israeli tanks had
entered Nablus.
Israeli
soldiers opened fire, but no casualties were reported, after the tanks
entered the town from two directions, the officials said.
The
last incursion into the town was May 11, and since then Israeli tanks
have been surrounding the city.
Several
Israeli tanks, as well as armored vehicles, also entered the town of
El Bireh, near Ramallah, reaching the center of the town, the security
officials said. There were no injuries.
Earlier
on Thursday, the Israeli army shot dead a member of the Palestinian
security services and killed a civilian man in Gaza, AFP reported.
The
army also abducted two Islamic Jihad activists in Ramallah, claiming
they were planning a suicide bombing in Jerusalem during a Jewish
religious holiday starting later Thursday.
The
Ramallah offensive was the first raid on the self-rule town since
Israel ended its month-long siege of Palestinian President Yasser
Arafat's West Bank headquarters May 2.
Israeli
forces also earlier staged a dawn raid on Taluza, a village near
Nablus, imposing a curfew and rounding up residents, witnesses said.
The
occupation army moved into Taluza, north of Nablus, and abducted at
least 20 people in house searches after telling villagers to stay in
their homes.
An
army statement admitted there was a "brief incursion into
Taluza", but claimed as usual that it launched the offensive to
"make arrests and destroy [alleged] terrorist infrastructure in
the area."
The
army added that its forces at the Aram checkpoint north of Jerusalem
had arrested a Palestinian whom it accused of allegedly planting a
bomb in the area.
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