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Policies of abduction and arrests continue
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NABLUS,
August 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Continuing a widely
condemned policy of killings and abductions, the Israeli occupation army
on Saturday, August 17, murdered a Palestinian man inside his shop in
Nablus and arrested dozens others in Al-Khalil (Hebron).
A
special plain-clothes unit of the Israeli army killed Behaa Yayish
inside the shop he owns in the West Bank town of Nablus, Palestinian
witnesses told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Three
Israeli men, dressed as civilians, pulled up at a car outside the shop
of Yayish, 41, a Palestinian allegedly involved with Hamas, and forced
him to get in where they killed him, after which they quickly drove off,
they said.
Yayish
was arrested by the Palestinian security services two years ago, but
later released, the witnesses said.
The
Israeli army claimed it had no knowledge of Yayish's arrest, but said it
would look into the incident.
Meanwhile,
the Israeli army arrested dozens of Palestinians in the center of the
southern West Bank city of Al-Khalil, Palestinian witnesses said.
Palestinian
males were rounded up and taken to an area under Israeli control for
interrogation, the sources said.
The
army had earlier slapped a curfew on the city, over which it has
extended its control since reoccupying nearly all of the West Bank in
June, AFP said.
Clashes
also erupted between Israeli troops and young Palestinians in the
Deheishe refugee camp near the southern West Bank town of Bethlehem,
witnesses said, reporting no casualties.
Three
more Palestinians were arrested by the army in the southern Gaza Strip
town of Rafah as they were trying to cross the border with Egypt, an
army spokesman said.
It
was not initially clear whether they were trying to cross into or out of
the Gaza Strip, he said, without specifying what the three men were
wanted for.
Three
Palestinian youths were arrested by Israeli border police in Issawiya
village, just two kilometers (a mile) north of occupied Jerusalem on
suspicion of throwing stones at an Israeli car which was driving to the
nearby Jewish settlement of Maaleh Adumim, AFP said.
Israel
public radio said a woman inside the car was lightly injured by the
stones and the car was slightly damaged.
In
Gaza, around 1,500 Palestinians attended the funeral of two Palestinians
who were killed by the army late Thursday, August 15, as they tried to
infiltrate the Kissufim crossing between the central Gaza Strip and
Israel, the army said.
The
mourners, who gathered in the al-Boureij refugee camp in the central
Gaza Strip, swore they would avenge the deaths of the two men, both of
whom were members of Al-Aqsa Martrys Brigades, an offshoot of
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah group, AFP said.
The
latest round of arrests took place as the main Palestinian factions
announced they would be resuming discussions on a common strategy for
the pursuit of the nearly 23-month-old Intifada on Thursday, a senior
Islamic Jihad official told AFP.
"The
high committee of the National and Islamic Forces will meet Thursday,
August 22, in Gaza City to discuss the Islamic Jihad and Hamas'
comments" on a document for a united leadership, Islamic Jihad
official Mohammad al-Hindi said Saturday.
Over
the last week, the 13 major Palestinian factions have been discussing a
common policy on how to fight the Israeli occupation, but despite the
talks, positions appeared as entrenched as ever.
A
draft document by the coalition calls for an end to attacks inside
Israel, but until now, only the main-stream Fatah group, which is headed
up by Arafat, has endorsed the call and agreed in principle to limit its
attacks to the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Leaders
of Islamic Jihad and Hamas, who have carried out the vast majority of
suicide bombings over the last decade, have refused to curb their
attacks inside Israel.
The
leadership document also calls for the creation of a Palestinian state
within the 1967 borders.
