Israeli Occupation Troops Leave Tulkarem And Enter Bethlehem; In Gaza They Kill a Mother & Her 12-year Daughter

26/05/2002| IslamWeb

HIGHLIGHTS: Bethlehem, Latest Target of Israel's New Policy of Pinpoint Attacks||Mother & Daughter Die of Injuries in El-Boureij Refugee camp||G8 To Discuss Mideast Peace||STORY: A mother and her 12-year-old daughter, wounded in the Gaza Strip Saturday from Israeli fire, died from their injuries, a Palestinian security source said. (Read photo caption)

According to the sources the two were shot and wounded when an Israeli occupation army unit, backed by tanks, entered the El-Boureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

BETHLEHEM, TARGET OF LATEST ISRAELI ATROCITIES

The Israeli occupation army blew up the home of the local head of Islamic Jihad in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, which its forces stormed Saturday night, Palestinian witnesses said.

It was not clear if anyone was in Mohammad Shehad's home. Shehad's movement Islamic Jihad, along with its larger counterpart Hamas, pioneered the tactic of Resistance bombings inside Israel in the mid-1990s.

Armoured Israeli transport vehicles entered into Bethlehem from the east and also rolled into Beit Jala, which borders the Jewish settlement of Gilo on the outskirts of east Jerusalem.

The army also poured into Doha, a village near Bethlehem, witnesses said.

Issa Bdeir, the 16-year-old suicide bomber who blew himself up and killed two Israelis Wednesday night in Rishon Letsion south of Tel Aviv, hailed from Doha.
  
Saturday's incursion was the first raid into Bethlehem since Israeli troops ended a five-week siege of the city on May 10.

INCURSION INTO TULKAREM ENDS

In the West Bank, Israel detained about 100 Palestinians in its incursion into Tulkarem, although the occupation army would only confirm it had arrested four people in its house-to-house search.

Meanwhile, an 11-year-old boy was shot and wounded as tanks and armoured vehicles withdrew from Tulkarm midday on Saturday under cover of Israeli machinegun fire, Palestinian witnesses said.

An army spokesman confirmed the withdrawal and said troops continued to surround Tulkarm, but gave no further information.

Israeli occupation soldiers also thwarted Saturday what they say may have been a planned Palestinian bombing, arresting a 16-year-old Palestinian who was wearing an explosive belt in a taxi in the northern West Bank.

The occupation army has also imposed a curfew on several dozen Palestinian towns in the West Bank along the Green Line to prevent infiltrations by militants planning to attack Israelis.

G8 TO DISCUSS MIDEAST

In Cairo, Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham said Saturday he will urge Yasser Arafat to pursue political reform to make his Palestinian Authority more "credible" in future peace negotiations with Israel.

PHOTO CAPTION

Smoke rises from a street in the west bank city of Tulkarm May 25, 2002. Israeli forces, tanks and armored vehicles pulled out of Tulkarm under cover of machinegun fire, ending a two-day sweep for Palestinian militants during which one soldier was killed and two wounded, witnesses said. (Abed Omar Qusini/Reuters)