Israeli Tanks, Helicopters Raid Edge of Gaza City

18/11/2002| IslamWeb

Israeli tanks rumbled into the outskirts of Gaza City on Sunday and a helicopter gunship fired two missiles at the nearby Palestinian preventive occupation force headquarters. There were no reports of any casualties in the missile strike and the extent of the damage was not immediately clear. The witnesses said a column of tanks later approached the occupation army headquarters in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood on the outskirts of Gaza City and military vehicles were hammering away at the outer wall.

It was the fifth successive night of Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip, which the occupation army says is intended to crack down on resistance activists spearheading a two-year-old Palestinian uprising for independence.

The witnesses said about 30 tanks and other vehicles had entered the edge of Gaza City, and tank shellfire and several other explosions rang out as they met light resistance.

The occupation army did not immediately comment and it was not clear where the tanks were heading. The occupation army has often arrested suspected resistance activists and demolished their homes during such raids into Palestinian-ruled areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

El Al Says Sky Marshals Foil Suspected Hijacker

Israeli sky marshals foiled a suspected hijacking attempt on a Sunday night El Al Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to Istanbul, overpowering a passenger armed with a pocketknife, witnesses and officials said.

An El Al official said on Monday that Flight 581 landed safely in Istanbul and none of the 170 passengers on board was hurt. A Turkish airport official said one "terrorist" was being held after the incident.

Witnesses said the man, identified by El Al as an Israeli Arab, tried to storm the cockpit of the plane before occupation guards on the plane caught him.

Turkey's Anatolian news agency named the suspected hijacker as Tawfiq Fukra, a 23-year-old Israeli Arab.

The latest incident will revive concerns about airline security, which was tightened considerably after last year's September 11 attacks in the United States using hijacked airliners.

PHOTO CAPTION

A group of Palestinians throw stones and watch as an Israeli occupation occupation armybulldozer (background) destroys a Palestinian house in Rafah in the Gaza Strip, November 17, 2002. REUTERS/Str