In the latest development in the Palestinian lands, the Israeli army made loudspeaker announcements telling Palestinian residents of Bethlehem's Aida camp and the area around Rachel's Tomb, a Jewish holy site, to evacuate their homes, residents told AFP.
Meanwhile, two Palestinian teenagers were lightly wounded by rubber bullets in a clash between Israeli troops and dozens of stone-throwers in a West Bank village near Bethlehem, medical sources and witnesses were quoted by the agency as saying.
The army’s move came after a clash in the nearby al-Khader village a day after Israeli tanks pounded Bethlehem with shells and missiles in heavy fighting that left an Israeli soldier dead and around a dozen Palestinians wounded.
The army has previously given evacuation orders to Palestinian areas before launching attacks during the past six months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
In the Gaza Strip, a 31-year-old Palestinian man was injured by flying splinters and debris when Israeli tanks guarding the Kfar Darom settlement shelled a Palestinian residential area in Deir al-Balah, medical sources said.
Some shells fell near positions of the Palestinian national security forces and a number of homes were damaged, witnesses said.
Overnight, the Israeli army entered areas in the southern Gaza Strip under full Palestinian control and razed an outpost of the presidential guards unit, Force 17, said AFP.
Around 100 Israeli soldiers, four tanks and two army bulldozers entered the Khan Yunis region where the two sides exchanged fire for around an hour as the small outpost was bulldozed, a Palestinian source told the agency, adding that no one was hurt in the shooting.
The area is part of more than 60 percent of the Gaza Strip which falls under full Palestinian security and administrative control.
Meanwhile, a top Fateh leader in the West Bank, Hussein Al-Sheikh, has threatened that the Palestinians will begin employing the methods of assassination which Israel has been using against the Palestinians, Haaretz quoted him as saying.
Al-Sheikh, said Haaretz, was referring to the assassination of Mohammed Abdel-Al, member of the Islamic Jihad movement, on Monday by a helicopter fire in the Gaza Strip.
The Islamic Jihad vowed to revenge for Abdel-Al's assassination and carry out more attacks against Israel.
Both Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres defended the assassination, claiming that the Jewish state "has the right to defend itself from Palestinian terrorist."
"Because the PA isn't following the agreements with us to halt terror, Israel has to take the necessary steps," Sharon was quoted as saying by Haaretz newspaper on Monday.
Fierce clashes flared in the Palestinian territories on Monday with an Israeli soldier killed in an exchange of fire with armed Palestinians near Rachel's Tomb in the West Bank city of Bethlehem and several Palestinians injured in clashes with Israeli troops.
19-year-old Danny Darai was killed in the exchange of fire that also left seven Palestinians wounded.
Clouds of white smoke rose from the city, as Israeli tank shells slammed into the Paradise Hotel in the city, according to Haaretz.
It claimed that the hotel was turned into a sandbagged Palestinian fort from which snipers tried to pick off Israeli soldiers.
The gunfire was so intense that the thunderous booms of the tank shells could be heard in central Jerusalem, a few kilometers away.
In Hebron, Jewish settlers and the Israeli army were blaming "outside extremist Jews" for a bombing that destroyed a Palestinian grocery, slightly injuring six soldiers on patrol at the time of the bombing in the wholesale market, said The Jerusalem Post newspaper.
Settlers leaders said they want the perpetrators prosecuted because the bombing, which destroyed several shops as well as the grocery, had injured soldiers.
In other developments, a car bomb was discovered overnight near the Shavei Shomron junction near Nablus by a routine patrol of soldiers.
The car, parked at the side of the road, raised the soldiers' suspicions and they made note of its license number. As the soldiers drove off, the car exploded, said the Post, adding that nobody was hurt in the incident.
In the evening, a Jewish settler was wounded in the West Bank by bullet fragments that hit his car, added the paper.
Meanwhile, Israeli military sources said the Palestinians had improved the quality of their shooting in recent weeks, according to Haaretz. "Palestinian forces were getting training as snipers, and the PA's security forces were now involved in smuggling telescopic sights into the territories," the sources said - Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
