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Palestinians detained by Israeli troops
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GAZA
CITY, April 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A 12-year-old
Palestinian girl was killed by Israeli fire in the southern Gaza Strip
town of Khan Yunis Saturday, April 10, as Israeli soldiers carried out
two separate raids in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Palestinian
medics told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that Iman Tolba sustained a
fatal bullet wound to the head and died shortly after her arrival in
hospital.
Her
death brought the overall toll since the September 2000 start of the
Palestinian Intifada against the Israeli occupation to 3,899,
including 2,932 Palestinians and 898 Israelis, according to an AFP
count.
Meanwhile,
sporadic clashes flared up in the West Bank and Gaza Strip Saturday,
as Israeli soldiers detained five Palestinian resistance activists in
two separate raids, according to sources on both sides.
Israeli
troops and Palestinian resistance fighters traded fire after three
Israeli army jeeps drove into the Balata refugee camp outside the
northern West Bank town of Nablus, Palestinian security sources said.
There
was no immediate word on any casualties.
In
the meantime, Israeli soldiers raided the neighboring Ain Beit Ilma
refugee camp, detaining three suspected Palestinian fighters, the
sources added.
Two
members of the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, were also detained
near the southern West Bank town of Bethlehem, Israeli military
sources told AFP.
An
Israeli patrol came under fire near Jenin in the northern West Bank,
while an anti-tank rocket exploded on the outskirts of the Jewish
settlement of Neve Dekalim in the southern Gaza Strip, they added.
Crossing
Fingers
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"We are crossing our fingers for the Americans in Iraq," Mofaz
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The
continuous Israeli crackdowns and raids in the occupied Palestinian
territories came as the world focus shifted dramatically to the
inflaming situation in Iraq which is also under U.S.-led occupation.
Only
naturally, Israel expressed full support for embattled U.S. troops in
Iraq, saying it hoped they would crush what it called
"terrorism", whereas several thousand Palestinians marched
in support of anti-occupation resistance.
"We
are crossing our fingers for the Americans in Iraq. Their success is
vital for world peace," Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told
the mass circulation daily Yedioth Ahronoth.
"If
the Americans manage to control the situation in Iraq, which Israel is
convinced they will, it will have a positive impact on the whole
Middle East, the oil market and the international community's
authority."
But
he warned that "if the Americans are forced to withdraw from Iraq
as a result of terrorist pressures, a new and dangerous Arab regime
will seize power. The axis of evil will lift its head again and
threaten world peace."
On
the other hand, more than 2,000 Palestinians participated in a rally
in Gaza City called by the Islamic Jihad resistance group to
demonstrate against the U.S.-led occupation.
"Death
to Israel, death to America," chanted the angry crowd.
They
burned effigies of U.S. President George W. Bush and of Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon.
"We
want to show the Iraqi people and the whole world today that we are
fighting the same battle. Our people's throats are being cut by
Sharon's knife and Iraqis are being slaughtered by Bush's knife,"
said one of the group's spokesmen, Mohammed Al-Hindi.
Hamas
chief Abdelaziz Rantissi had drawn a similar line Thursday, April 8.
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In solidarity with Iraqis, Palestinians burn a U.S. flag
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In
the northern West Bank city of Nablus, some 400 Palestinians
commemorated the first anniversary of Baghdad's fall, waving banners
reading: "Baghdad and Al-Quds - resistance is the only
alternative", and: "Bush and Sharon are the godfathers of
terrorism."
The
demonstrators, who marched after the main weekly Muslim prayers, set
U.S. and Israeli flags ablaze as a large Iraqi flag flew overhead.
