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Israel Abducts Arafat Bodyguards
JERUSALEM, April 1 (News Agencies) - Israel warned of more incursions into Palestinian Authority territory Sunday, after special forces captured members of Yasser Arafat's bodyguard, while clashes continued and left four Palestinian teenagers injured.
Israeli army chief General Shaul Mofaz told Israeli television: "We will strike wherever is necessary at those who commit acts of terrorism and kill civilians or Israeli soldiers."
His warning came after the abduction by a special army unit of one civilian and five members of Force 17, Arafat's personal bodyguard.
Undercover Israeli Special Forces, camouflaged with tree branches, stole into Palestinian-controlled areas in the West Bank overnight and captured the Force 17 members. The group is accused of launching attacks on Israelis.
Palestinian minister Saeb Erakat denounced the midnight operation north of Ramallah as an act of "piracy" and new proof of Israeli "organized terrorism," just days after Israel bombed Force 17 targets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Over 100 Israeli commandos, disguised with foliage, crept towards an outpost of the guard at the entrance to the village of Jiljilya from neighboring Sinjil, which is under Israeli army control.
Army helicopters hovered overhead throughout the operation and tanks provided cover for the Special Forces from the hills of Sinjil as they made their way through woodland and vineyards, witnesses said.
Meanwhile, sporadic violence erupted in the Palestinian territories after one of the bloodiest weeks since the Intifada erupted six months ago, as four Palestinian teenagers were injured by live Israeli gunfire in separate clashes in the Gaza Strip, following the death of another boy two weeks after Israeli troops shot him in the West Bank, medical sources said.
Doctors announced the death early Sunday of 12-year-old Luay al-Tamimi who had lain unconscious for around a fortnight after Israeli soldiers shot him in the head with a live bullet in the village of Deir Nizam north of Ramallah.
Tamimi's death raises the toll of killings from more than six months of violence to 464, the vast majority of them Palestinians.
And late Sunday, there were brief exchanges of fire between Israeli troops based in the Jewish settlement area of Gilo in east Jerusalem and Palestinians in Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, a military source said.
Separately, another exchange of fire occurred between the Palestinian village of al Khader in the same area and a military position guarding the Efrat settlement to the south of Bethlehem, witnesses said. No injuries were reported.
Meanwhile in Cairo, France's visiting parliamentary speaker Raymond Forni warned Israel it risks international isolation if it uses its military superiority to crush the Palestinians.
"The Israelis, even if they are militarily superior, cannot allow themselves to crush the Palestinians, because they would isolate themselves," the speaker of the French National Assembly said.
"The situation is extremely worrying," Forni told a press conference. Forni also denounced, "the continued nibbling away at the territories" by Israeli settlements.
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