An armed Palestinian was shot and killed late Monday night by Israeli troops after he opened fire on a car carrying settlers in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli army spokesman said. The incident took place in the south of the Gaza Strip on a road close to the Jewish settlement bloc of Gush Khatif.
The man, armed with an assault rifle, was killed by soldiers who were traveling in a jeep that was accompanying the settlers' car, and his body was recovered, the spokesman said.
Palestinian security services could not confirm or deny the shooting, which occurred in a zone under Israeli control. They reported intense Israeli gunfire against a Palestinian security post in the town of Beit Hanoun in the north of the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army arrested nine Palestinians in Ramallah early Tuesday morning. The Israeli forces were still holding their positions in Ramallah early Tuesday. A curfew was in force, confining Palestinians to their homes. Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Monday the operation would last one or two days.
Israeli army bulldozers used rubble and car wrecks to seal Yasser Arafat's headquarters in the city in the latest move to isolate the Palestinian leader.
Scores of tanks earlier rumbled into the city and surrounded the battered compound, sparking clashes in a refugee camp which killed one Palestinian and forced Arafat to call off the first meeting of his new cabinet.
"The bulldozers, since the afternoon, have sealed off the entrances to the besieged headquarters, with rubble and the frames of cars flattened by tanks and armored vehicles," the Palestinian leadership said in a statement.
The Israeli army confirmed it had sealed off the entries to the compound, saying it was to prevent activists from hiding there.
Elsewhere, an Israeli source said that Israeli forces also entered the Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem briefly early Tuesday. The source said an army patrol moved into the camp after midnight, remained inside for several hours and left without making arrests.
Also on Tuesday, the Israeli army imposed a curfew on the West Bank city of Tulkarem and the surrounding villages. Armored Israeli vehicles carried out searches in the area, following warnings that Palestinians from this city were planning to launch attacks inside Israel. (Albawba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
