Israeli Forces Destroy Mosque in Nablus, Enforce Curfew in Several Cities
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A Palestinian girl looks at the rubble of her home destroyed by the Israeli forces |
NABLUS, August 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli occupation forces destroyed early Monday, August 5, a mosque and a number of homes in the West Bank city of Nablus. The forces also carried out incursions in Rafah and stopped the residents of five West Bank cities from moving around in cars.
Palestinians sources told the Qatari News Agency that the occupation forces destroyed the Al-Khadra mosque and the houses of residents Raed Darouza, Essam Tabanjah, Mahdi Abou Ghazala, Saleh Abu al-Hayat, in addition to destroying a coffee shop and a Palestinian preventive security forces office.
The occupation forces also enforced a curfew in the village of Kafr Sur, south of Tulkarem and threatened the residents through loud speakers that whoever breaks the curfew will be instantly shot at.
Meanwhile, the occupation forces stormed Monday morning the city of Rafah amidst heavy gunfire and targeted residents’ houses and cars.
The Palestinian Satellite Channel said that 25 Israeli tanks stormed the city through the Sufa entrance North east of Rafah and closed the roads leading to the districts of Rafah and Khan Younes. That Israeli forces further enforced a comprehensive siege, isolating Rafah from other districts in Gaza and preventing residents from entering or leaving the city, the Channel added.
The occupation forces also closed all roads leading to the Gaza hospital. They also spread soldiers on the road connecting Mawarej settlement and Salah el-Deen street, and blocked all side roads leading to Khan Younes. The soldiers also forcefully entered a number of homes and detained their owners inside them. The rooftops of these houses were transformed into surveillance units.
Thousands of Palestinians gathered in several stations in Rafah Monday morning. They were all forbidden to reach their schools, hospitals and places of work.
The Palestinian Satellite Channel reported that the Israeli forces entered early Monday morning the Jizan al-Najar area in Khan Younes and surrounded five homes, gathering the women and children into one room and placing the men outside their homes.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army announced Monday it was banning Palestinians from driving in five West Bank cities and isolating a Gaza Strip town.
"Following the latest wave of attacks, the work of people from the north of the West Bank, it has been decided to impose a complete ban on driving by Palestinians in five of the main Palestinian towns in the region, except for medical or humanitarian needs," a spokesman said.
The towns affected are Nablus, Tulkarem, Qalqiliya, Ramallah and Jenin.
Two Jewish settlers and two Palestinians were killed early Monday, August 5, in the West Bank, an Israeli military source and Palestinian security officials said.
The Israeli source said the settlers were shot dead by Palestinians north of Ramallah while the security officials announced that the two Palestinians died in an exchange of fire with Israeli soldiers in the village of Burka near Nablus, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The two, Haled Seif and Mohammad Farunieh, died when the Israelis attacked a house in Burka. Four other Palestinians in the building were arrested by the troops, the officials said.
The Jewish settlers were driving in a car when the Palestinians opened fire at them from another vehicle. Two passengers in the settlers' car were lightly injured, the Israeli source said.
Six Palestinian attacks took place Sunday, August 4, killing 10 people and wounding more than 70, despite the Israeli reoccupation of virtually all the West Bank by the Israeli army, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Four Palestinians also died Sunday: one in the Gaza Strip, another killed by the bomb he set off in a bus in Israel, a third who fired at a telephone company car in occupied east Jerusalem, and the last in the ensuing shootout.
The bus attack was carried out by the Ezzedine el-Qassam brigades, the military wing of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas, in retaliation for the Israeli air raid in Gaza which killed 15 Palestinians, including 12 children early Tuesday, July 23. In the raid, Salah Shehada, a Hamas leader, was also assassinated along with his wife and daughter.
Israeli government spokesman Avi Pazner said Israel will fight "without mercy" against the perpetrators of the latest bombing.
Palestinian minister for international cooperation Nabil Shaath also lashed out at the bombing saying, “Every form of resistance is legitimate except hitting innocent civilians.” Nobody has asked Islamic resistance movements to stop their resistance, he said, “but they could stop killing civilians and instead conduct suicide operations against Israeli tanks,” he told AFP.
U.S. President George W. Bush condemned Sunday's attack and urged all nations to help end what he described as anti-Israeli "terrorism".
"I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers," he said from his family home in Maine.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army on Sunday pressed ahead with its plan to expel relatives of Palestinians, ordering a third Palestinian banished from the West Bank, while two others set to be deported appealed their case before a military court.
The army ordered Sunday the expulsion of a Palestinian woman, Intissar Adjuri, 34, from the Askar refugee camp near Nablus, to the heavily guarded Gaza Strip, which is sealed off from Israel by electric fences, legal sources said.
Her brother Gaza Kifah Adjuri, 28, also from Askar, and Abdel-Nasser Assidi, 34, from the village of Tel, are appealing their expulsion orders to a military tribunal and rulings are expected in the coming days. Intissar is expected to submit an appeal Monday, the sources said.
All three were among 21 Palestinians arrested last month because they were related to resistance fighters who killed 14 people in two July attacks.
Their brothers are specifically wanted in connection with a roadside ambush on a
bus outside the illegal Jewish settlement of Emmanuel that killed nine Israelis.
In a related development, the leadership of the Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip called Sunday for a "mass expulsion" of Palestinians.
"The terrorists, their families and the environment which supports them must be deported beyond the borders," the Council of Settlers, which represents religious settlements, said in a statement.
"The rules of the game must be changed," the council said, denouncing the "legal restrictions" on the expulsions which Israel has said will constrain its new policy.
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