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300 Palestinians Take Over Hebron Prison, Freeing Islamists
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Palestinian
police scuffled with Palestinians who stormed into Gaza prison to free
jailed resistance activists.
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AL-KHALEEL (Hebron), West Bank, Feb. 12 (News Agencies) - Some 300 Palestinian demonstrators took over a prison in Hebron in the southern West Bank Monday, February 11, and started releasing prisoners whom Israel lists as most-wanted.
The demonstrators pushed their way into the central prison and released 17 prisoners, including local Islamic Jihad leader Mohammed Sidr whom Israel tried to kill December 10, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
The crowd smashed doors and windows, but there was no shooting reported and no one was injured, AFP quoted witnesses as saying. Sidr disappeared after the crowd moved in, AFP said.
The takeover came after hundreds of Palestinians tried to free prisoners in the Gaza City prison, located in the same compound as central security offices, which had been bombed by the Israeli air force. More than 500 prisoners are held in the building, both political and criminal detainees.
Police said that members of the resistance Islamic Jihad and Hamas groups, in addition to those accused of collaborating with Israel, had been evacuated to safer premises as Israeli missiles came down on the Sarayeh prison compound, which is also Gaza's main security center.
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| Freed resistance activists walk out of jail in Hebron. |
The mainly young Palestinian crowd retreated as guards fired shots over their heads then regrouped and resumed the assault, lobbing stones before being dispersed by sustained firing in the air from police.
The police were also trying to push back curious bystanders who had gathered around the compound to observe the damage as they warned that two of the five missiles fired by F-16s had not yet exploded.
This came after Israel launched air raids on Palestinian security targets in Gaza City. The raids came in two waves, about 30 minutes apart, with attack helicopters and F-16 warplanes firing seven missiles at the Saraya security and prison compound.
Palestinian hospital officials said that at least 37 people had been injured, while the loud explosions that rocked central Gaza City sent schoolchildren and other passers-by scattering in panic, according to BBC's online new service.
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