Israel was braced for more suicide bombings Saturday after its soldiers assassinated a Fateh activist and wounded 10 other Palestinians in an attack on the Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip.
According to AFP and Haaretz, Israeli security forces arrested two Jihad members they said were on the way to set off a bomb in Haifa, which has been in a state of emergency since Thursday.
Police also maintained blockades on the main thoroughfares in northern Israel, in particular in the Haifa area, at entrances to the port, and the Hadera region northwest of Tel Aviv, said the agency, adding that there had been Israeli intelligence reports warning of further attacks.
Meanwhile, the occupation army maintained its grip on Bethlehem, Ramallah and Qalqiliya in the West Bank in a bid to stop Palestinians from getting around roadblocks and entering Israel.
The Palestinian news agency, WAFA, reported that Israeli troops fired at Palestinian homes in the town of Khan Yunis, killing Fateh activist Abdo Abu Bakra, 29, and wounding ten others, leaving several in serious condition.
Palestinian security officials said the killing of Abu Bakra was another assassination, which added the activist to a list of more than 40 Palestinian resistance fighters liquidated by the occupation troops.
Israelis in tanks, bulldozers and armored personnel carriers moved about 150 yards (meters) into Palestinian territory on the outskirts of Khan Yunis, according to Palestinian security sources, cited by WAFA.
On Friday, Palestinian sources said 15 Palestinians were injured, one critically, in a series of clashes with Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip.
Fifteen of the wounded were boys, and one was in a critical condition after being shot in the head, medical sources said, cited by WAFA.
An Israeli military spokesman told Haaretz newspaper that “the IDF said its troops moved on a cell of five Palestinians who were carrying out an attack from an area where frequent gunfire is directed at Israeli forces.”
The raid sparked further tensions as a crowd gathered for Abu Bakra's funeral.
Following the arrest of the alleged Jihad activists, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon congratulated his security forces for stopping Palestinian bomb attacks and saving the lives of many Israelis, his office said in a statement Saturday, cited by AFP.
The increased security follows two recent suicide bombings in west Jerusalem and Haifa. Along with the bombers, 15 people died and more than 100 others were injured in the two incidents.
The Yediot Ahoronot paper reported Israeli security had received "hot" pinpoint warnings of intended suicide bomb attacks in the north and center of Israel by Islamic Jihad and Hamas.
Public radio cited a senior security official warning that the Palestinians were trying to smuggle explosives and car bombs from the Gaza Strip into Israel.
Sharon's senior diplomatic adviser, Avi Pazner, Saturday warned Israeli troops would continue to pursue and kill "terrorists," as he defended the attack on Khan Yunis.
He described the operation as part of a "legitimate policy of self-defense which consists of intercepting terrorists wherever they can be found.
"This policy will continue," he vowed.
The attack on Khan Yunis marked the second Israeli raid into an area under full Palestinian control this week, a violation of the 1993 Oslo peace accords.
Pazner warned that Israel would continue its policy of incursions "independent of whatever foreign countries think," despite criticism from the Jewish state's strongest ally, the United States.
Meanwhile, a senior Palestinian official Friday called on the United States not to block a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel.
"We call on the American administration not to block the Security Council from voting on a resolution" condemning Israel, top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said in a statement after meeting in the West Bank town of Jericho with US envoy David Satterfield.
He said the Palestinian Authority had approached the UN "for major international support to secure a halt to Israeli aggression against institutions in Jerusalem and Abu Dis," referring to the closure of Orient House, the unofficial headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization in occupied east Jerusalem, and a Palestinian office in the Abu Dis suburb.
Erakat said "American hesitation over a timetable for applying the Mitchell report (to end the crisis) and the sending of observers is seen by the Israeli government as a green light for continuing its attacks on the Palestinian people."
The statement said the US envoy reiterated his country's opposition to "any Security Council resolution" on the matter.
AFP's latest death tally for the Palestinian uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation comes out to 13 Arab Israelis, 547 Palestinians, and 146 Israelis, putting the ratio of casualties at around four Palestinians killed for every Israeli loss.
Israel’s wounded number in the high hundreds, according to army sources, while the Palestine Red Crescent Society puts the number of Palestinians injured at over 14,000.
Amnesty International reported early this year that almost 100 Palestinian children had been killed by Israeli soldiers, nearly all in situations where the occupation troops were under no immediate threat.
The latest Palestinian uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation began last September – Albawaba.com
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