Israeli tanks pushed into Palestinian areas under heavy cover of fire

By IOL Palestine Office  

GAZA, August 14 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – In a fresh violation of the fragile temporary truce, Israeli army killed a local leader of the Islamic Jihad faction in the West Bank on Thursday, August 15, triggering the group's vows of "harsh" revenge.

Israeli troops launched a rocket attack on a house in the southern West Bank city of Al-Khalil, killing Mohamed Al-Sedr, Palestinian sources told IslamOnline.net.

The attack triggered large explosions in the building, after Israeli forces traded fire with what they called other "wanted" Islamic Jihad members, the sources added.

Israeli military sources earlier reported that a grenade had been hurled at the troops from the house, without causing any casualties.

The assassination triggered anger and threat of retaliation from the group leaders, who blamed Israel for any possible retaliatory action.

"It is a great crime and the Israeli army will pay a dear price for it in its soldiers and settlers," said Bassam al-Saadi, another leader of the Islamic Jihad in the West Bank.

He also charged the assassination endangered the three month Palestinian truce declared on June 29, adding that "Islamic Jihad will respond in the appropriate time and place, harshly".

"The Israeli army is increasing the likelihood the hudna (truce) will be destroyed, as it is clear the Israeli government is increasing its killing, detentions and attacks on Palestinian cities daily," he said.

For Khaled Al-Batsh, an Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza, the Thursday killing is a clear illustration that the hudna is "dying" and the group could quit the ceasefire in response.

"This is a flagrant violation of the hudna, which might have even ended after a series of Israeli attacks against Palestinian targets," said Batsh.

"Islamic Jihad is committed to respond to these violations, as part of its legal duty to defend Palestinians in general and its activists in particular," he said.

On August 8, in a similar incursion in the northern West Bank town of Nablus, four Palestinians, including two members of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas, were killed and the house where they were holed-up was destroyed by explosives.

Following that attack, back-to-back bombings left two Israelis dead, apart from the perpetrators, and a dozen injured on Tuesday, August 12.

Further Incursions

In the meanwhile, Israeli tanks backed by Apache helicopter gunships rolled into the West Bank city of Ramallah, where President Yasser Arafat is confined to his headquarters by the Jewish state, sources told IOL.

The forces set up roadblocks and restricted movements of local inhabitants, and closed down the Beir Zeit university after blocking students' access to it.

Early on Thursday, Israeli occupation forces pushed into the northern West Bank refugee camp of Jenin, where they carried out house-to-house searches and inflicted heavy damage on civilian buildings there, Al-Jazeera said.

Thirty tanks laid siege to the camp and opened random and heavy fire, but failed to detain what it called "wanted" people, the Qatar-based channel said.

In Rafah, to the south of Gaza Strip, Israeli army carried out a fresh incursion and destroyed one house, Palestinian sources said.

"Seven tanks and two bulldozers pushed into the Barahma area for 100 meters and demolished two houses before pulling out," said the sources.

In Nablus, the house of Islam Youssef Al-Tamouni, who carried out the second Tuesday attack in which one settler was killed and two others injured outside the Jewish settlement of Ariel in the Palestinian West Bank, was destroyed by Israeli soldiers.

Occupation forces imposed a curfew on the area and ordered inhabitants to leave their nearby houses. They then demolished the house, inflicting damage on nearby houses," said eyewitnesses.

Also in Nablus, the Israeli army broke and wrought havoc to a medical health centre.