Click on Link to download or play MP3 file || 3 m 0s || 2.75 MB Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org, for Thursday April 17th, 2008.
Three Palestinians die in Gaza due to Israeli attacks while in the West Bank Israeli troops kill two Palestinians, these stories and more coming up stay tuned.
The News Cast
Palestinian sources reported that three Palestinian fighters died on Thursday, two due to previous wounds and one during clashes with the Israeli army at midday today.
Osama Abu Anzah, of the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, was killed when armed clashes with the Israeli army took place at the Karem Salem border crossing located in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
Medical sources said that Abu Anzah was killed and another fighter was injured in the clashes. Israeli sources said that the two fighters were attempting to enter the Israeli side when the clashes took place.
Meanwhile the Al Qassam Brigades today stated that two of their fighters have died. Abdullah Suleiman died today after succumbing to wounds he sustained on Monday in Jabaliya refugee camp in central Gaza, while Mohamed Al Mutawak, 22, died due to wounds he sustained on Sunday during an Israeli army attack targeting Jabaliya town.
During a pre dawn attack on Thursday which targeted Qabtiya town located near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, Israeli troops killed two Palestinian resistance fighters. Local sources in Qabtiya said that Israeli troops and a bulldozer invaded the town then surrounded an house there that was under construction, two fighters from the Al Quds brigades were inside.
Clashes between the Israeli soldiers and the fighters took place for several hours, the clashes ended when troops used explosives to attack the house killing the two fighters inside.
Medical sources identified the two resistance men as Bilal Ikmeal, 26, and Iz-al Deen Iwedat, 19. Ikmeal is the leader of the Al Quds brigades in the northern part of the West Bank, sources from the Islamic Jihad said.
Also in the west Bank the Israeli army kidnapped 26 Palestinians from several parts of the West Bank on Thursday at dawn.
The army invasions were focused in the southern West Bank cities of Hebron and Bethlehem as well as northern West Bank cities of Nablus and Jenin. Eyewitnesses reported that eleven Palestinians were kidnapped from Nablus, after 50 military vehicles stormed the city and nearby refugee camp of Balata. Troops searched and ransacked homes, the witnesses added, before kidnapping the civilians.
Conclusion
Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today from the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org. This report has been brought to you by Louisa White and Ghassan Bannoura.
