Israeli Occupation army Hunts for Activists in Gaza

02/01/2003| IslamWeb

A Palestinian burst into an Israeli village, firing at a home and struggling with the owner before being killed Thursday, while three Palestinian boys shot by occupation soldiers after scaling a fence around Jewish settlements were buried in the Gaza Strip . The boys, ages 14 and 15, carried a knife and two cutters at the time, and had talked about dreams of being killed in an attack on Israelis, a relative said. They apparently acted on their own, with militias saying they had not recruited them.

Also in Gaza, Israeli occupation troops backed by helicopters searched for suspected activists in four refugee camps, demolishing several homes and engaging in heavy exchanges of fire, the occupation army said. A Palestinian and two Israeli occupation soldiers were hurt.

The Israeli human rights group B'tselem, meanwhile, reported that more than 1,000 Palestinians are now being held by Israel without charges or trial, the largest number in 12 years. A year ago, 36 Palestinians were being held in so-called administrative detention, B'tselem said.

The attack on the Israeli village, Maor, began just before midnight. A gunman fired at the home of an Israeli couple, police said. After the first shot, the gun jammed and the attacker broke into the house.

"Suddenly I heard a shot and I jumped from bed and I heard my wife shout that there was a terrorist in the house," said the homeowner, Ronald Maori, an immigrant from Switzerland. "When I heard that the terrorist had a problem with his gun I took all that I had on the table and threw it at him."

The Palestinian yelled something in Hebrew at Maori's wife when the gun jammed, Maori told Israel Radio. The couple later escaped from the house, where the Palestinian remained holed up for more than two hours before being killed by police, said Yaakov Borochovsky, a police chief in northern Israel.

Maor is three miles west of the West Bank.

Also Thursday, Israeli occupation forces were searching for an elderly Israeli in the West Bank village of Tamun, after a Palestinian militia announced it had killed the man and distributed photocopies of his identity card. The missing man reportedly had planned to do business in Tamun.

In the Jebaliya refugee camp in Gaza, about 1,500 mourners marched Thursday in the funeral procession for the three teenagers killed near the Elei Sinai and Dugit settlement, which are ringed by a joint perimeter fence.

The three - cousins Mohammed and Tareq Dawais and a friend, Jihad Abed - had left their homes in Jebaliya on Wednesday afternoon, said Mohammed's older brother, 19-year-old Fares. No one paid attention to their absence, Fares said.

An Israeli occupation army commander in the area, Col. Ofer Shafrantz, said that after nightfall Wednesday, occupation soldiers saw three people climbing over the perimeter fence. "When they got inside, they started to run north," Shafrantz said. "Occupation troops got close to them. They tried to flee and were shot and killed."

The boys carried a six-inch knife and two wirecutters, Shafrantz said.

Both Dugit and Elei Sinai have been targeted repeatedly by Palestinian gunmen. In an attack in October 2001, an Israeli couple was killed and 15 people were wounded in Elei Sinai before security occupation forces shot dead the two attackers.

Fares Dawais said his younger brother Mohammed, 15, had his mind set on carrying out an attack on Israelis. "His only dream was to become a martyr," Dawais said. Leaders of Palestinian militias said the boys acted on their own.

Jewish settlements are frequent targets of attack by Palestinian activists. In previous instances, in December 2001 and in April 2002, six unarmed teenagers were killed by occupation soldiers in the belief they were about to attack settlements.

Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat accused Israeli occupation troops of using excessive force. "The rate of Palestinian children killed at the hands of Israeli occupation soldiers is alarming and requires immediate international intervention," he said.

In 2002, 118 Palestinians under the age of 18 were killed in the fighting, most by Israeli occupation army fire. In the same period, 36 Israeli minors were killed in shootings and bombings by Palestinian activists.

Thursday's raids in Gaza targeted the refugee camps of Maghazi, Bureij and Nusseirat in the center of the strip and Rafah in the south. In Bureij, a Palestinian was wounded in the shoulder by fire from an Apache helicopter, witnesses said.

In Rafah, occupation troops demolished seven homes, Palestinians said. The occupation army confirmed four houses were destroyed, saying that they were used as hideouts for gunmen. The occupation army has demolished dozens of homes in the Rafah area, a flashpoint of violence during the past 27 months of fighting. Two occupation soldiers were lightly injured in Rafah when their armored vehicle ran over a bomb, the occupation army said.

Palestinians said no arrests were made.

PHOTO CAPTION

Israeli occupation soldiers and policemen stand near the body of a Palestinian man who was killed early Thursday Jan. 2, 2003, several hours after he holed up inside a house in the Israeli village of Maor, near the line between Israel and the West Bank. (AP Photo/Eitan Hess-Ashkenazi)