A 20-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli forces, raiding a police headquarters in the West Bank city of Qalqilyah, Palestinian sources said Wednesday. Another policeman was lightly wounded in the raid, the sources added.
The victim was identified as Ahmad Ghanem while the wounded man was identified as Ahmad al-Sanam. Israeli troops also raided dozens of houses in the town and detained citizen Ahmad Daoud, who is a student in al-Najah University in Nablus.
Later in the day, a 17-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian sources said.
Elsewhere, Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopters destroyed a Palestinian house in a raid on a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip early Wednesday, Palestinian security sources said.
Palestinian fighters exchanged fire with the Israeli soldiers in the opening minutes of the incursion into al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, the sources said.
Witnesses said Israeli troops forced the inhabitants out of the house and began to plant explosives in it. Minutes later an explosion was heard followed by the shouts and crying of men, women and children from Abu Sa’eed family who were forced to stay out in the cold after losing their only shelter.
Witnesses said that the explosion was big enough to damage nearby houses and stores.
Later, and only after the Israeli forces left the scene, the Sa’eed family began searching through the rubble of the house as well as that of nearby houses, looking for their belongings that might have stayed unharmed. Shortly after that, the body of an old woman was found under the rubble in an adjacent house.
Family members identified her as Kamla Abu Sa’eed. Apparently she was hiding in a nearby house at the time of the explosion and was hit in the head by a chunk of flying stones, they said.
On Tuesday, a Palestinian official said Palestinian security forces had deployed in the Gaza Strip this week to stop Palestinian groups from firing rocket and mortar bombs at Israeli targets. "We are trying to wipe out any pretext Israel could use to escalate its aggression against the Gaza Strip," the security official said.
In another development, the Palestine National Authority (PNA) has criticized the delay of the resumption of inter-Palestinian talks by Hamas and the Islamic Jihad as “not helpful for the national interest of the Palestinian people.”
“The Palestinian talks have been delayed until after the feast at the request of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. They were not ready for dialogue,” said President Yasser Arafat’s media adviser Nabil Abu Rudeina.
“This delay is not helpful for the national interest of the Palestinian people,” he said. (Albawaba.com)
