Three Palestinians were shot dead when armed Palestinian opened fire early Friday morning in the vicinity of the Erez crossing, in the Gaza Strip. Israeli troops in the area fired him and killed him. Two other Palestinian laborers were killed from the Israeli fire, Israel Radio reported.
The armed Palestinian entered the crossing, opened fire, and hurled a hand grenade, Army Radio added.
In Jenin, Palestinian security officials said Israeli troops blew up an empty building early Friday, causing a nearby building to collapse, killing a 14-year-old Palestinian and wounding seven others.
Meanwhile, dozens of Israeli tanks moved into the West Bank city of Nablus early Friday, witnesses said, hours after the army said two Palestinians took over a house at a nearby Jewish settlement, killing a mother, three of her children and a security officer. The tanks fired sporadic bursts of machine-gun fire but there was no apparent resistance, and soldiers used loudspeakers to declare a curfew, witnesses said.
Palestinian witnesses said Israeli troops had stationed six mobile shelters on a hilltop overlooking Nablus, suggesting their stay in the area could be prolonged.
The incursion appeared to be the broadest Israeli response yet to a new wave of Palestinian attacks. Regarding the settlement attack, the Israeli army said in a statement that "the terrorist climbed a fence, entered one of the houses and opened fire at its residents." Eight other people were wounded in the attack on the settlement of Itamar.
Israeli political sources said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was due to convene his security cabinet on Friday to discuss a possible further call-up of army reservists and a widening of Israeli military operations in the West Bank.
"We are in the middle of a war, a hard war, a cruel war, a war that the Palestinian terrorists are carrying out against women and children and old people," Sharon told a meeting of Jewish leaders shortly after the Itamar attack began to unfold on Thursday.
"We are facing a coalition of terror led by the Palestinian Authority and backed by an axis of evil -- Tehran, Baghdad, Damascus and (Osama) bin Laden," said Sharon, who summoned army commanders to discuss a military response.
The violence delayed plans by U.S. President Bush to deliver a speech outlining his recommendations for Mideast peacemaking. White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said. Bush first wants to see Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat carry out his pledges to fight “terror.” "The progress the president is looking for is action," Fleischer commented.
Bush called Sharon on Thursday. Fleischer said most of the conversation "was about condolence and sympathy for what Israel is going through." In the conversation with Sharon, "the president reiterated his determination to push for peace and to find a way to provide more security for Israel and hope for the Palestinian people," the White House spokesman said. Also, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell talked to the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. (Albawaba.com)
