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At
Shifa hospital in Gaza City, medical workers X-Ray the body of
Samira Doukhdar, 25, shot in the neck and killed Friday by Israeli
forces
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GAZA
CITY, September 20 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli
occupation forces killed two Palestinian civilians during deadly
overnight incursions into the Gaza Strip, hospital sources said early
Friday, September 20, as an Israeli army sharpshooter killed a
Palestinian policeman inside the besieged Ramallah Headquarters of
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
The
victims in
Gaza
were named as Ahmed Loubad, 35, and Samira Doukhdar, a 25-year-old
woman. Both were killed by Israeli fire in Tufah, in the north of
Gaza
, Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted the Palestinian hospital sources
as saying.
During
the overnight deadly incursions, occupation forces dynamited four
workshops in the Tufah area, according to Palestinian security
sources.
The
army also stormed Al-Shujayiah district on the eastern edge of
Gaza
City
, while to the north, Israeli forces later occupied around two
kilometers (one mile) of Palestinian land toward the towns of Beit
Lahiya and Beit Hanun, AFP added.
In
Al-Shujayiah, Israeli helicopter fire injured two Palestinian
civilians.
Meanwhile,
in the reoccupied
West Bank
town of
Ramallah
, an Israeli army sharpshooter killed Friday a Palestinian policeman
inside the Headquarters of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat,
Palestinian security officials told AFP.
The
policeman was hit by a bullet when he was standing next to a window,
said AFP.
Ten
Israeli tanks, troop carriers and jeeps had stormed President Arafat's
Headquarters late Thursday, September
20, demanding the surrender of Palestinian security forces inside the
compound.
Among
those forces are the head of
West Bank
intelligence,
Tawfiq Tirawi and the commander of Arafat's Force 17 bodyguard, Mahmud
Damra.
During
the raid on the Palestinian President’s HQ, the Israeli army shot
and injured two of Arafat's bodyguards, AFP reported.
The
occupation army also abducted 23 Palestinians from Arafat's besieged
HQ compound late Thursday, it added.
Those
abducted came from a building close to Arafat's offices but were not
part of a group of around 20 Palestinian security forces whose
surrender the occupation army is demanding, Palestinian sources said.
They
said prisoners held by Palestinian security forces were among those
abducted, along with their guards, whose prefab lodgings were
destroyed as Israeli tanks and bulldozers rolled into Arafat's
compound.
Later
Thursday, the Israeli cabinet decided unanimously to
"isolate" President Arafat in his besieged Ramallah HQ
compound.
The
cabinet went as far as discussing the expulsion of the Palestinian
President from the Palestinian territories – a question eventually
ruled out after security chiefs warned that such a move would do
Israel
more harm
than good.
Officials
inside President Arafat's besieged Headquarters said the situation was
extremely tense, amid fears of a repeat of a notorious five-week March
siege.
The
deadly raids on the
West Bank
and
Gaza
followed two Palestinian resistance attacks in the northern
Arab-Israeli town of
Umm
el-Fahm and Tel Aviv on Wednesday and Thursday, September 18-19
respectively.
The
two martyr operations came after a six-week halt of all Palestinian
resistance operations – six weeks that also witnessed continued
Israeli occupation, aggression and murder and a repeated failure on
the part of hardline Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to resume
peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
Ezzedin
al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic resistance movement
Hamas, said one of its freedom fighters blew himself up in
Thursday’s retaliation for an Israeli deadly July night raid on a
Gaza
apartment block that killed their leader and 16 other people, most of
them children. In that raid, a U.S.-made F16 dropped a one-ton bomb on
a highly populated
Gaza
district.
Thursday’s
retaliatory operation in Tel Aviv came just one day after the first
successful martyr operation inside
Israel
in six weeks killed a policeman, days ahead of the second anniversary
of the Palestinian Intifada against Israeli occupation.
"The
martyr operations will continue against the Zionists. We are defending
our people. The resistance will escalate," said Abdel Aziz
Rantissi, a senior Hamas political leader.
Mohammad
al-Hindi, a senior leader of the resistance movement Islamic Jihad,
which claimed Wednesday's attack in Umm el-Fahm, said the latest blast
"proves that our people will not submit, however great are the
murders, destruction and collective punishment" carried out by
Israel.
But
President Arafat’s Palestinian Authority condemned the attacks and
asked all Palestinian resistance groups to do likewise.
"The
Palestinian leadership condemns all attacks on civilians, be they
Palestinian or Israeli," the statement said, adding that they
gave "Sharon and his army more reason for killing and
punishment."
