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Israelis Reoccupy Al-Khalil, Kill Four Policemen, Abduct Over Hundred
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| Al-Khalil
was the latest target of the Israeli plan to reoccupy the
entire West Bank.
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AL-KHALIL
(Hebron), West Bank, June 25 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) –
Following U.S. President George W. Bush’s speech in which he
suggested no borders or timetable for the creation of a
“provisional” Palestinian state, Israeli troops and tanks stormed
Al-Khalil (Hebron) early Tuesday, June 25, killing four Palestinian
policemen and abducting more than a hundred others as they seized the
West Bank’s largest city.
Several
dozen Israeli tanks and armored vehicles stormed the Palestinian city
and clamped a curfew while another armored column stormed the nearby
town of
Dura
, Palestinian security sources said, Agence France-Presse (AFP)
reported.
Al-Khalil
– a city of 140,000 – was the latest target of the Israeli plan to
reoccupy the entire
West Bank
, now that they are in full control of seven of the eight major
West Bank
towns.
Earlier,
a dozen Israeli tanks and armored vehicles reoccupied Jalaya north of
Ramallah, the home base of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat,
sources said. The Israelis imposed a curfew and rounded up
Palestinians for interrogation, AFP added.
In
the latest offensive on Al-Khalil, the Israelis shot dead four
Palestinian policemen. Policeman Ashraf Deib and intelligence officer
Mohammed Abu Awad were in Arafat's local headquarters when Israeli
troops opened fire, also wounding at least five other people, AFP
reported.
Israeli
forces abducted more than 100 Palestinian policemen who were in the
building that houses the offices of Al-Khalil's governor, Palestinian
security officials said.
The
Israelis had previously reoccupied the towns of Ramallah,
Nablus
, Jenin, Qalqilya, Tulkarem and
Bethlehem
, leaving only
Jericho
untouched in their week-old offensive, code-named Determined Path.
The
Israeli occupation army has started to mobilize reserves for the
blitz, a follow-up to a six-week military offensive on the
West Bank
that ended last month.
But
the Israeli offensives have not stopped Palestinian resistance, with
martyr operations – the sole weapon Palestinians are left with –
intensifying in retaliation for the escalating Israeli incursions,
killings and abductions.
On
Monday, June 24, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned of a
massive military offensive against the Islamic resistance movement
Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli troops earlier killed six
people, including two Hamas activists, in a deadly helicopter raid.
“We
are preparing a massive military operation against Hamas in the Gaza
Strip, a taste of which you got this morning,”
Sharon
told members of his right-wing Likud party, in reference to the dawn
raid in
Gaza
.
Two
Israeli helicopters had fired missiles early Monday at two civilian
cars on the southern Gaza Strip town of
Rafah
, killing six Palestinians and wounding ten.
Three
Israeli air-to-surface missiles struck the Geneina district near the
town of
Rafah
, completely destroying a civilian car and damaging two others.
The
shelling reduced the victims’ bodies to torn-off limbs. It was
difficult to recognize any of the six dead, and the ten injured
suffered serious wounds.
Palestinian
security officials called the helicopter raid a case of “targeted
assassination” of a member of Hamas military wing, the Ezz El-Din
Al-Qassam Brigades, who was killed along with his brother.
The
Israeli army acknowledged the raid was aimed at assassinating a Hamas
member in Rafah, naming him as Yasser Rizq, 29.
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