Israel Kills 4, Expels Kin, Demolishes Homes of Palestinian Activists
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Palestinian children look at 6-year-old girl Neven Abu Slmuah during her funeral in the Gaza strip |
NABLUS,
August 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Israeli occupation
army stormed the West Bank city of Nablus in strength early Friday,
August 2, killing a Hamas activist and four other Palestinians,
including a 9 year-old girl, and destroying homes.
Four
Palestinians
were killed by Israeli forces Friday before dawn, one in the Gaza
Strip and three in the Nablus region, while they shot dead a
nine-year-old Palestinian girl late Thursday, August 1, in the Gaza
Strip.
Another
Palestinian girl, 6, and an elderly man also died of wounds sustained
by Israeli fire last month in the Gaza Strip, hospital officials said.
Israel
also prepared to expel two relatives of Palestinians from the West
Bank to the Gaza Strip in a controversial move, Agence France-Presse
(AFP) reported.
An
Israeli military spokesman also said the army destroyed the homes of
two activists killed in anti-Israeli attacks last year, one from Hamas
and one from the Islamic Jihad group.
The
destruction of homes and the expulsion of family members of militants
is meant to be a deterrent, but resistance groups say it will only
stir up anger and more retaliation.
The
two men due to be expelled for two years were named as Gaza Kifah
Adjuri, 28, from Askar refugee camp, and Abdel Nasser Assidi, 34, from
the village of Tel, both in the West Bank.
They
were among 21 Palestinians
arrested in mid-July 2002 because they were related to Palestinians
who launched resistance attacks against Israeli targets as a part of
their fight against occupation.
Adjuri
and Assidi had until 0800 GMT Friday,12 hours after they were served
notice of the expulsions, to appeal to a military tribunal. If they
are refused, they can make a final appeal to the Supreme Court, AFP
reported.
Meanwhile,
Israeli forces made new incursions early Friday, including one into
the West Bank town of Nablus, the scene of major Israeli violence and
destruction in April 2002.
Four
Palestinians were killed before dawn Friday, one in the Gaza Strip and
three in the Nablus region.
A
Palestinian was killed and another wounded when Israeli tanks and
bulldozers made an incursion into Rafah in the south of the Gaza
Strip, Palestinian security sources said.
Then
two Palestinians,
Raed el-Amad and Naaman Zalum, were killed in exchanges of fire when
some 80 Israeli tanks and armored troop carriers moved into the old
town of Nablus in the north of the West Bank, Palestinian
security sources said.
They
clamped down a curfew and made some 15 arrests. The
old town had been devastated in April when it was occupied by the
Israeli army.
In
the village of Salem near Nablus, Israeli troops also shot dead a
Hamas activist, witnesses said.
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| Relatives of an activist sit near the family's destroyed house, prepare a Palestinian flag to be flown on the rubble in the town of Beit Jala |
Amjad
Jabur, 28, was "shot at point-blank range by soldiers after
having surrendered," a neighbor told AFP.
"The
soldiers ordered me to go round to Jabur's home to warn him he was
cornered and that he should surrender," the neighbor said.
"I
obeyed," he went on. "Jabur agreed to give himself up. He
came out into the street, that's when soldiers shot at him from two
meters away."
An
Israeli military spokesman said Jabur was killed while allegedly
trying to escape.
"He
was trying to flee and the soldiers fired warning shots before
shooting at him," claimed the spokesman in Jerusalem.
But
villagers said his body had been left where it fell – right in front
of his house.
The
soldiers destroyed a house during the incursion near the border with
Egypt.
Late
Thursday in the Gaza Strip, a nine-year-old Palestinian
girl was shot dead in a taxi by fire from Israeli troops in Khan
Yunis, near the Gush Katif bloc of illegal Jewish settlements, Palestinian
security sources said.
Also
on Thursday, in an industrial zone near Tulkarem, in the northern West
Bank, the body of an Israeli man who had been tied up and shot in the
head was found in an area under Israeli control. It was not known if
the man was a Jewish settler.
Earlier
in the day, another Palestinian girl, 6, and an elderly man also died
of wounds sustained by Israeli fire last month in the Gaza Strip,
hospital officials said.
In
the West Bank, the Israeli army demolished houses belonging to the
families of Hamas activist Ahmed Alian, who is believed to have died
during a resistance attack in the Israeli town of Netanya March 4,
2001, and of Hatem Sheikh, an Islamic Jihad member who died November
4, 2001 after attacking a bus in East Jerusalem.
The
Alian family house was located in the West Bank town of Tulkarem, and
that of the Sheikh family in Al-Khalil (Hebron).
Hamas
stepped up its threats Thursday, threatening to kill 100 Israelis for
every one of its leaders assassinated by the Israeli occupation army.
Hamas
claimed responsibility for the Hebrew university bomb and said it was
in retaliation for the Gaza raid in which 18 Palestinians were killed,
including Hamas leader Salah Shehada and 12 children, including a
two-month-old enfant.
Early
Tuesday, July 23, Israel used a U.S.-built F-16 to drop a one-ton bomb
on a densely populated Gaza City district, killing 18 Palestinians, in
a bloody air-raid condemned by the entire international community.
In
Washington, meanwhile, President George W. Bush held talks with
Jordan's King Abdullah II, and expressed fury when informed of the
deaths of U.S. nationals in Wednesday's Jerusalem university bomb
attack.
"I
am just as angry as Israel. I am furious. I am mad," said Bush.
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