- Title: WEST BANK/GAZA: FIERCE GUN BATTLES BREAK OUT IN HEBRON
- Date: 30th August 2001
- Summary: (U4)HEBRON, WEST BANK (AUGUST 30, 2001) (REUTERS) 1. SV PALESTINIAN MAN CROUCHING AT BUILDING CORNER AND FIRING RIFLE AT ISRAELI POSITIONS 0.07 2. LAS/LV PALESTINIANS SHOOTING AT ISRAELI POSITIONS/PALESTINIANS RUNNING FROM ISRAELI FIRE (2 SHOTS) 0.25 3. LV/SLV PALESTINIAN MAN SHOOTING AS HE RUNS ACROSS STREET/ WIDE OF STREET/ PALESTINIAN MA
- Embargoed: 14th September 2001 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: HEBRON AND NALEEN, WEST BANK/ RAFAH AND NEAR RAFAH, GAZA
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Reuters ID: LVA2LB1NLRBGQCI4FLAHLTDMYH8Q
- Story Text: Just hours after Israeli forces withdrew from the
Palestinian controlled town of Beit Jala, a fierce gun battle
broke out when Israeli troops raided a Palestinian-controlled
area in the West Bank city of Hebron.
Earlier, Israeli tanks flattened homes in the south Gaza
town of Rafah and an Israeli man was shot dead when he visited
a cafe owned by Palestinian friends in the West Bank town of
Naleen.
Fierce gun battles broke out in the West Bank city of
Hebron on Thursday (August 30) after Israeli tanks entered 500
metres into a Palestinian-controlled area in the city.
Israeli forces that entered Abu Sneineh, on a hill
overlooking the centre of the city met with strong resistance
from Palestinian gunmen.
Palestinians planted roadside bombs along the hilltop in
Abu Sneinah ahead of the Israeli incursion, then detonated
them as the Israelis advanced.
The Israeli Army said that during the exchange of fire, it
fired one tank shell into Abu Sneineh.
Nine Palestinians were injured, two seriously, in the
fighting, several cars were burnt and dozens damaged by
bullets.
Palestinians shopping the the city's central market were
trapped and ran frantically to get out of the way of the
flying bullets. They were unable to evacuate their wounded
to hospital.
In southern Gaza, armoured Israeli bulldozers demolished
three houses near the border with Egypt early on Thursday as
gun battles raged in the Rafah area close to where
Palestinians reported an Israeli raid into their territory on
Wednesday.
The army said the demolitions were carried out to prevent
arms smuggling from Egypt to Gaza through underground tunnels
along the border.
Israeli tanks prevented Peter Hansen, United Nations
Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) commissioner for Palestinian
Refugees in the Near East, from inspecting the demolished
houses on Thursday.
Hansen called the Israeli action yet another obstacle that
has been put in the way of the agency's humanitarian work.
In the West Bank village of Naleen, an Israeli man was
shot dead by a masked Palestinian gunman as he visited a cafe
owned by Palestinian friends for breakfast.
Amos Tajouri died when a masked Palestinian gunman walked
into the cafe where he'd just ordered an omelette and shot him
at almost point blank range.
Mursia Amira, a member of the family that owns the
restaurant, said the 60-year-old Tajouri from the nearby
Israeli city of Modiin would come to the village every morning
and had loaned them the money to open the restaurant.
He and members of his family sat and sobbed in the dust
outside the restaurant as Tajouri's body lay under a blanket.
Israeli police scoured Tajouri's car for clues to the identity
of the gunman.
"Amos used to come here every day to eat and buy vegetables as one
of us," said Amira. "One masked man shot him and ran away."
The Palestinian mourning for Amos was unusual in their
11-month-old uprising, which has deepened fears and mistrust
between Israelis and Palestinians.
The violence, which erupted in September after peace talks
deadlocked, began as a largely political struggle for
Palestinian independence but has since spawned personal
hatreds on both sides.
At least 544 Palestinians and 157 Israelis have been
killed in the bloodshed.
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