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20 Palestinians Under Siege In Al Khalil Hospital
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Israeli occupation soldiers escort blindfolded Palestinians after arresting them in Al Khalil
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AL KHALIL, HEBRON, West Bank, April 30 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli occupation forces have 20 Palestinians trapped in Al Khalil’s (Hebron) largest hospital and are ready to storm it if necessary, the commander of the operation here said Tuesday.
Israel’s occupation army deputy commander for the southern West Bank colonel Moshe Hager also claimed Israel’s occupation troops did not plan to stay much longer in Al Khalil, the West Bank's most populous city occupied since early Monday, but would likely remain in the area for a few weeks.
Hager said 10 Palestinians were killed earlier by Israeli occupation forces which cornered about 20 Palestinian resistance activists in the Al Ahli hospital in central Al Khalil, the larger of the city's two medical facilities.
"We know them and we won't let them escape," said Hager. "We are preparing ourselves to go in, but we also have another way to make them go out. "
Hager did not elaborate on the occupation army's tactics but rejected a lengthy siege such as the blockade that has lasted four weeks at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
"We decided that we will not let the situation in the (Bethlehem) church continue in this hospital," Hager said. "There are no negotiations."
Earlier, nine Palestinians were killed Monday by Israeli occupation soldiers in Al-Khalil as a large number of Israeli tanks and infantry entered the West Bank city.
Hamas sources said that among the dead was Tarek al-Dufashi, the other Palestinians killed were Rajeb Abu Shami, a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and Ahmed Bashir, a member of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's Force 17 presidential guard. Two aides of the Tanzim head in Al Khalil, Marwan Zelum, were also killed during the incursion. Zelum was killed last week in an Israeli strike, Israel’s daily Ha’aretz reported.
Palestinians said that six of the dead were unarmed civilians, four of whom were killed when a rocket fired by an Israeli helicopter struck a house. Twenty people were reported injured, most by missiles from helicopter gunships, which targeted Palestinian Authority buildings. There were no injuries reported to the Israeli soldiers, the daily added.
Israel’s occupation army reoccupied more than half of the Palestinian part of the divided city and arrested 45 Tanzim, Hamas and Islamic Jihad resistance activists.
Israel’s occupation troops declared a curfew, confining Palestinians to their homes. Senior security officials said that the operation would last one more night, Ha’aretz said.
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo called the assault a provocation by the Israelis. "Their aim is in fact to widen the attacks and reoccupation of Palestinian cities," he said from Ramallah.
The United States called on Israel Monday to withdraw its occupation troops from the West Bank town of Al-Khalil after its troops seized the town in an overnight operation that left at least eight Palestinians dead.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said during a briefing that the United States opposed any incursions into the Palestinian territories and noted that that position had been made clear to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
"We believe that Israel should refrain from further incursions and that's a consistent position that we have made clear to Prime Minister Sharon," he told reporters.
"We think they should refrain and withdraw," Boucher said. "Finish their withdrawal and refrain from further incursions. Wherever they are in we've always said they said they would withdraw from."
Hebron is home to thousands of Palestinians who live on the outskirts of a heavily-armed enclave of about 400 radical Jewish settlers who have been reported to have attacked Palestinians living nearby.
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