Israeli forces invading the self-rule village of Beit Reema near Ramallah have reportedly killed at least 10 Palestinians, wounded several others, and arrested 11, in what one Palestinian official described as a “new Kufur Qassem,” referring to an Israeli massacre in the 1950s.
Al Jazeera satellite channel said that the Israeli army had barred Palestinian ambulances from rescuing the large number of wounded in the city.
The correspondent of the official Palestinian news agency (WAFA) told Albawaba.com by phone that “there are a lot of victims scattered in olive orchards but unreachable by the Palestinians.”
Those arrested were mostly from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Fateh. The former group assassinated Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi last Wednesday in retaliation for the killing of their own leader in an earlier Israeli attack.
Israeli forces rolled into the village in the early hours of Wednesday and killed a Palestinian policeman, according to initial reports.
A column of Israeli tanks stormed the Palestinian village in the West Bank, apparently in search of suspected militants, the head of the village council told AFP.
Around 15 tanks rolled into Beit Reema, under cover of darkness, sealing off the community of around 4,000 people and sparking clashes, municipality president Abdel Karim Jasser told the agency by telephone.
A spokesman for the Red Crescent medical aid group told AFP that at least two people were reported wounded when the tanks entered the self-rule Palestinian village, but said the Israeli army was not allowing ambulances into Beit Reema.
The operation, backed by helicopter support, came just hours after the United States toned down its call for Israel to end its invasion of six Palestinian towns "immediately," revising its demand to "as soon as possible, ” said AFP.
The WAFA reporter said that the Paradise Hotel in Bethlehem was on fire after an Israeli attack and that an Israeli soldier was shot in the head by a Palestinian sniper in the city.
Seven Palestinians were killed earlier attacks by Israeli forces, and the Jewish state remains defiant over its re-occupation of Palestinian-ruled towns, ignoring Washington's increasingly muted calls for restraint.
A 22-year-old Palestinian man died Wednesday hours after Israeli special forces shot him in the head in Abu Dis, a suburb of east Jerusalem, Palestinian hospital officials said.
Three young Palestinian men were killed Wednesday morning in an Israeli tank and machinegun attack on the West Bank town of Tulkarem, according to the official Palestinian news agency (WAFA).
WAFA identified the three as Ayman and Mahmoud Jallad, and Saleh Rasheed Al Assi, and two others killed Tuesday night in the city were named as Bader Shaer, 50, and Talat Jabber, a 19-year-old policeman.
Witnesses told the agency that the Israeli troops occupied at least 10 houses in the town.
Another Palestinian on Wednesday succumbed to injuries sustained in earlier Israeli attacks.
In another development, Jewish settlers shot and wounded six Palestinians early Wednesday in the West Bank town of Hebron, reports said.
The Palestinians were workers in a taxi mini-van on their way to work at an Israeli settlement in the area.
Jewish settlers in a car overtook their vehicle and opened fire with automatic rifles, one of the passengers in the taxi told AFP.
Al Jazeera said the wounds of two of them were serious.
Washington slammed the Israeli action Monday in one of its sternest rebukes to its close ally yet, in particular condemning the deaths of around 30 people since the partial re-occupation of Palestinian autonomous towns.
But after meeting with visiting Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, the US administration toned down its tough line.
Israel says it will withdraw when the Palestinian Authority hands over Zeevi's assassins, something the PA has refused to do, saying it goes far beyond its obligations under a moribund ceasefire agreement.
Bush was quoted by New York Times as saying, "I would hope the Israelis will move their troops as quickly as possible."
US Secretary of State Powell reiterated his demand, made on Monday, for an immediate pullout, a spokesman said.
Peres said: "We would like to withdraw immediately. The minute the Palestinians will take the necessary steps, this may happen."
In a related development, AFP reported that more than two out of three Israelis reject the US demand for Israeli forces to pull out of Palestinian towns, citing a poll published in the daily Yediot Aharonot Wednesday.
Asked whether Israel "should accept the US demands for an immediate withdrawal from areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority," 68 percent said “no.”
Thirty-one percent thought Israeli should comply with the demands of its main backer, which provides Israel with billions in military aid.
The poll was conducted among 507 Israelis by the Dahaf institute, with a margin of error of four percent – Albawaba.com
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