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Mourners carry the bodies of Palestinians killed in Jenin. (Reuters) |
NABLUS — Israeli occupation forces gunned down nine Palestinians in less than 24 hours, amid Palestinian fears of further military aggressions to throw a spinner into their efforts to stabilize the current ceasefire and enforce law and order.
"Karim Zahran, 17, was shot in the heart by an Israeli soldier near the West Bank city of Ramallah," Palestinian medics told IslamOnline.net.
Earlier, Israeli forces killed two members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Fatah, in the northern West Bank town of Nablus.
"Special forces sealed off Nablus old city after midnight and surrounded Abul-Haiyat building for five hours," said Ghassan Hamdan, Medical Relief chief.
The Israeli troops clashed with a group of Palestinian resistance activists.
"The battle, in which the Israelis used grenades and machine guns, continued for about three hours before they managed to kill Lubida and Fadel," Hamdan said.
A Palestinian ambulance worker said Nour was still breathing when the Israelis found him. "They finished him off," he said.
A 45-year-old civilian was killed in an Israeli strike on a car in Gaza Stripe late Saturday, April 21.
An undercover unit also gunned down three activists earlier that evening in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
A Palestinian policeman was killed by Israeli forces while looking form his window in a village near Jenin, witnesses said.
They added that a 17-year-old girl died inside her house in Jenin refugee camp from Israeli bullets.
The fatalities took to 5,669 the death toll since the outbreak of Al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000, mostly Palestinians, according to an AFP count.
Denounce
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| Palestinians inspect a damaged car after a missile was fired from an Israeli aircraft in the northern Gaza Strip. (Reuters) |
Palestinian Premier Ismail Haniyeh denounced the Israeli aggressions as evidence of the Israeli brutality.
"These crimes are new proof on the brutality of the occupation, its pursuit of liquidation and is a futile attempt to break the will of the Palestinian people and push them to surrender," he said in a statement.
Haniyeh urged Arab countries to help break a US-led aid freeze on the Palestinian government and not to normalize relations with Israel.
"We call on Arab leaders to urgently intervene in order to break the Israeli siege on the Palestinian government and answer the Israeli aggressions against our people."
Nabil Abu Rdaineh, an aide of President Mahmoud Abbas, said such Israeli attacks throw a spanner into peace efforts.
"This is a dangerous aggression and it will lead to instability at a time when the Palestinian Authority is making great efforts to maintain a truce," he said.
"We urge the international community to intervene immediately to stop Israel's aggression."
Abbas is reportedly working to extend a ceasefire observed by Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza Strip to cover the occupied West Bank.
Israel rejected in November 2006 a Palestinian offer to halt attacks against Israel in exchange for a cessation of Israeli onslaughts in the occupied territories.
Escalation
Palestinian analysts expect Israel to set up its aggressions to achieve several goals.
"Israel wants to drag Palestinian resistance groups into a violent response to justify a long-awaited military onslaught against Gaza Strip," Hani Al-Masri told IOL.
"Reports coming from Israel indicate that a Gaza offensive is only a matter of time."
Al-Masri cited claims by Yoav Galant, commander of the Israel's southern region, that foreign experts are training Palestinian fighters and that resistance factions have exploited the ceasefire to buildup their military capabilities.
Ayman Youssef, another analyst, said the Israeli escalation aims to torpedo the new security plan outlined by Interior Minister Hani Al-Qawasmi.
"Israel seeks to disrupt the implementation of the security plan which aims to close the thorny file of Palestinian infighting."
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