A Palestinian boy runs for cover during clashes with the Israeli army in the West

By Samer Khuwayera, IOL Palestine Correspondent

Qalqilya, West Bank (IslamOnline.net) – Dozens of Israeli army jeeps and tanks thrust late Saturday, April 26, into the West Bank town of Qalqilya for the second time in less than 24 hours and imposed curfew in hunt-down incursions to abduct wanted Palestinians.

The occupation troops opened their fire randomly at the Palestinian civilians and institutions, lightening up the town's night sky, eyewitnesses told IslamOnline.net.

Ahmad al-Khattib, who carried out the martyrdom operation in the Israeli town of Kfar Saba which killed one Israeli and wounded 13 other people on Thursday, April 24, was a resident of Qalqilya. The two towns are separated by only four kilometers (2.5 miles).

Israeli troops rounded Ahmad's father during an incursion into Balatta refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus.

In another development, Israeli military sources claimed that an armed Palestinian was shot dead in clashes with Israeli forces near Balatta refugee camp.

The Palestinian fighter, the sources added, opened fire at the Israeli troops, who fired back and killed him.

Five Palestinians were also injured in clashes with Israeli soldiers at Al-Quds street near the refugee camp, Palestinian medics said, adding that two were fatally.

"We Won't Lay Down Our Weapons"

Meanwhile, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movment, said Saturday in a statement distributed in Nablus that "as long as the Israeli occupation persists, the resistance operation will go non-stop until the Palestinians win their independence and get back their inalienable rights."

The statement called on the new Palestinian cabinet "not to yield to any external efforts targeting national unity."

"Resistance is a legitimate right fairly entitled to the Palestinians by the United Nations Charter," read the statement, hoping that the new cabinet would do everything in their power to maintain the security of the Palestinians and protect their human rights.

The brigades also rebuffed any call to give up their weapons, asserting that they would not stop their uphill struggle unless the Israeli troops withdrew from all Palestinian territories and an independent and sovereign Palestinian state was established.

"The brigades will not lay down their weapons even if they received orders from (Palestinian prime minister-designate) Abu Mazen or (his national security chief) Mohammad Dahlan," a senior leader of the brigades told IslamOnine.net.

"It is Palestinian martyrs who lay the foundation of the brigades with their fragrant blood," the brigades' commander in the Gaza Strip, Abu Hamid, said.

"The brigades would not give up their weapons at any case even if it would take them to stand up to the Palestinian authority itself," said the brigades' commander in the West Bank.