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Palestine Today a service of the International Middle East Media Centre www.imemc.org for Tuesday August 22sc, 2006.
Israeli army kills three and injures several other residents including a child in Gaza and attacks West Bank cities and takes scores of civilians as prisoners. These stories and more coming up, stay tuned.
Gaza Update
Israeli soldiers killed on Tuesday at dawn three members of the Al Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, after firing rounds of live ammunition at them as they attempted to infiltrate the “border fence” located between Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, and Israel. One child and one resident were injured during Israeli shelling to Khan Younis. The three slain fighters were identified as Sa’id AL Farra, Saleh Abdul-Ghaffar, and Bassam Sharab. Local sources reported that soldiers, backed by fifteen armored vehicles and several military bulldozers, invaded the Um Al Wad area east of the town of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip and advanced one kilometer inside the area under intensive firing of live ammunition and artillery shells at the residents’ homes.
At least one child and one resident were injured in the attack. The child, identified as Hanadi Suleiman Abu Rock, 12, suffered a round of live ammunition in her abdomen, while resident Jibreel Abu Teima, 37, was injured in his hand. Both were transferred to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Also, under cover units of the Israeli army carried out wide scale searches of homes in Al Shuja’eyah area, Tuesday morning under the pretext of searching for" wanted" residents.
Local sources reported that troops surrounded several homes in the area and abducted five residents including a resident identified as Shaybub Hilis who was moderately injured during clashes that erupted between the army and resistance fighters. A spokesperson of the Israeli army said that a joint military operation of the Givaati special unit and border guard units was carried out in Al Shuja’eyah area. Five resistance fighters were also abducted in the attack. One of the fighters, from the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, was injured and then transferred to an Israeli hospital in Ashkelon for treatment. The spokesperson added that one soldier was injured when an anti tank shell was fired at one of the military vehicles.
Also, Israeli warplanes shelled and destroyed two homes in the Jabalia refugee camp and Rafah City in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. The two targeted homes belong to Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists. Some 30 minutes before shelling the two homes, the families received phone calls from the army telling them that their houses will be shelled; although no injuries were reported, the homes were completely destroyed.
This Israeli policy of phoning victims of air raid home demolitions began over a month ago in the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces closed Tuesday Karni crossing, a commercial crossing located in the Gaza Strip. Three-hundred trucks were unable to arrive to their destinations, resulting in the loss of eight million shekels worth of produce. Egyptian authorities announced they would deploy 1,300 more soldiers to Rafah, the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip Tuesday.
The West Bank Update
Israeli forces arrested 15 Palestinians from the southern West Bank Tuesday. The raid spanned southern Bethlehem to southern Hebron city. The southern Hebron village of Dura lost nine residents after a quick home raid and search. At dawn Israeli forces also stormed villages in the southwest, and arrested four people on the specific orders of Israeli intelligence Shapak. In addition, three were arrested from the northern areas of Hebron city. Also on Tuesday, Israeli soldiers broke into dozens of shops and stores located in the Old City of Hebron, damaging awnings and the doors of several shops, local sources reported.
Tuesday at dawn, Israeli army troops, backed by armored vehicles, invaded the West Bank city of Nablus from the main entrances of Biet Eba and Huwwara , and took four prisoners, including an 80-year old man. The elderly man is a father of a resistance fighter active in the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the armed wing of Fatah.
Meanwhile in the West Bank city of Jericho, Israeli army troops took two prisoners during an invasion to the city. Local sources said that troops stormed the city center and took two residents, identified as Sobhi Al Sa’ow and Nasser Al Anani, to an unknown location.
In Bethlehem city, central West Bank, Israeli troops stormed Aida refugee camp in the city and the nearby Taqua village early in the morning. Troops searched and ransacked several homes in the village and the refugee camp and arrested two youth from the village and took them to unknown locations, eyewitnesses reported.
The army invaded several villages around the West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday and arrested one resident there. Troops stormed the villages of Qabatia, Abu Da’eef and Beit Kad and searched several houses before arresting Ahmad Eliat, 22 from Abu Da’eef village and taking him to an unknown location, security sources reported.
Conclusion
Thanks for joining us from Occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today for the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org brought to you by Caysha Cay & Ghassan Bannoura
