WEST BANK: FRESH FIGHTING ERUPTS AS ISRAELI TANKS MOVE INTO PALESTINIAN RULED AREAS OF RAMALLAH AND JENIN

Record ID: 376291

  • Title: WEST BANK: FRESH FIGHTING ERUPTS AS ISRAELI TANKS MOVE INTO PALESTINIAN RULED AREAS OF RAMALLAH AND JENIN
  • Date: 18th October 2001
  • Summary: (W3) RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (OCTOBER 18, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE OF ISRAELI TANK IN THE MIDDLE OF STREET /PAN TO PALESTINIANS 0.17 2. SLV: ARMED PALESTINIANS WATCHING 0.22 3. LV: TANK MOVING/ SMOKE 0.38 4. SLV: ARMED PALESTINIANS WALKING/RUNNING 0.46 5. LV: ARMED PALESTINIAN JUMPING OVER FENCE 0.49 6. LV:
  • Embargoed: 2nd November 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: RAMALLAH AND JENIN, WEST BANK
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVAARP02L8FX8DPF7WIRTLMM3PPG
  • Story Text: Israel has sent tanks into two Palestinian-ruled areas,
    sparking battles in which two Palestinians died, one day after
    Palestinian militants assasinated an Israeli cabinet minister.

    One of the dead is a 10-year-old girl killed when Israeli
    tank shells fell on a schoolyard.



    Flexing its military muscle, Israeli tanks and troops thrust
    into Palestinian-ruled areas near Jenin and
    Ramallah before dawn on Thursday (October 18), halting on the
    outskirts of the West Bank cities.

    The incursions were met with gunfire in Ramallah, where
    Palestinian gunmen fired on tanks and armoured bulldozers
    poised a few kilometres inside the city.

    Palestinian security officials and hospital sources said a
    10-year-old Palestinian girl was killed and six people wounded
    in Jenin when Israeli tank shells fell on a schoolyard.

    Israeli troops also shot dead a member of the Palestinian
    security forces during a firefight on the outskirts of
    Ramallah, Palestinian officials said.

    The Israeli army said there had been a gun battle in the
    area of the schoolyard and that it was checking both
    incidents.

    The Israeli cabinet said early on Thursday it reserved the
    right to enter Palestinian-ruled territory in the West Bank
    and Gaza Strip whenever there is an operational need to act
    against terror. It said it would play by new rules after
    Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi was assassinated at a Jerusalem
    hotel on Wednesday (October 17).

    Israel also demanded that the Palestinian Authority hand
    over the killers of the far-right cabinet minister or suffer
    retribution akin to the United States (U.S.)-led military
    strikes on Afghanistan.

    Later, police acting on Palestinian president Yasser
    Arafat's orders, arrested three members of the militant group
    that had claimed responsibility for the assassination.

    Israel's ultimatum did not include a deadline but was
    intended to increase international pressure on Arafat to crack
    down on militants and end an uprising against Israeli
    occupation that has raged for more than a year.

    The violence and reprisals jeopardised U.S.-led efforts to
    quell a year of fighting as Washington presses its anti-terror
    offensive against Afghanistan following the attacks on the
    United States on September 11.


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