Occupation Army Kills Five Palestinians Near Jenin & Two of its Own Near Hebron Al-Khalil

14/03/2003| IslamWeb

Israeli occupation forces killed five Palestinian resistance men in a raid on their hideout, occupation army sources and witnesses said. In the village of Tamoun, south of the Palestinian-ruled city of Jenin, residents said five local resistance men had been killed in exchanges of fire with Israeli occupation troops. Two other Palestinians were wounded and arrested, residents said.

An Israeli occupation army source claimed the clash erupted as occupation undercover forces raided a house serving as the activists' hideout.

Israel has been stepping up operations against resistance strongholds in the West Bank and Gaza, which it captured from Jordan and Egypt in the 1967 Middle East war.

The occupation army said it had arrested 11 "terror suspects" in overnight swoops. Israeli engineers also demolished the family homes of three Palestinian activists in the West Bank; a collective punishment measure, which Israel maintains, deters attacks.

Palestinian witnesses confirmed that the houses belonged to two members of the Palestinian resistance group Jihad and another from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

Occupation Army Kills Two Israelis by Mistake in West Bank

Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli occupation soldiers and a helicopter gunship shot dead two Israeli armed guards in the West Bank on Thursday after mistaking them for Palestinian resistance activists.

The occupation army said the shooting of the Israeli began when occupation troops at Pnei Hever settlement, southeast of the predominantly Palestinian city of Hebron, Al-Khalil spotted a suspicious car approaching from around a hill.

"The unit ordered the car to stop, and after identifying the occupant as armed, shot and killed him," an army statement said. "After hearing the gunfire, a second armed man ran off (from the hill). He was shot dead by a helicopter gunship."

Palestinians waging a 29-month-old uprising for statehood accuse Israeli occupation soldiers of being trigger-happy at checkpoints and roadblocks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. At least 1,925 Palestinians and 726 Israelis have been killed since the revolt began.

"Perhaps this tragedy will bring home to Israelis the laxity of the army's open-fire regulations in the territories," said Lior Yavne, spokesman for the Israeli rights group B'Tselem.

PHOTO CAPTION

An Israeli occupation soldier looks at the car in which two Israeli armed guards were killed by Israeli occupation soldiers in what is called a friendly-fire incident near the West-Bank settlement of Pnei Hever March 13, 2003. (Boaz Oppenheimer/Flash 90 via Re