VARIOUS: ISRAELI SOLDIERS FIRE ON MARKET IN WEST BANK CITY KILLING TWO CHILDREN AND A MAN AND WOUNDING MANY OTHERS
Record ID:
400390
VARIOUS: ISRAELI SOLDIERS FIRE ON MARKET IN WEST BANK CITY KILLING TWO CHILDREN AND A MAN AND WOUNDING MANY OTHERS
- Title: VARIOUS: ISRAELI SOLDIERS FIRE ON MARKET IN WEST BANK CITY KILLING TWO CHILDREN AND A MAN AND WOUNDING MANY OTHERS
- Date: 22nd June 2002
- Summary: (W5)JENIN, WEST BANK (JUNE 21, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. SLV ISRAELI TANK IN STREET, MOVING SLOWLY AND TURNING AROUND; SLV PEOPLE SHOPPING IN THE MARKET AREA OF JENIN, GROUP OF MEN OUTSIDE A SHOP; MV PEOPLE QUEUING OUTSIDE A SHOP; MV TWO MEN INSIDE A SHOP IN THE MARKET (4 SHOTS) 0.23 2. MV WOMAN BALANCING A BOX OF FRUIT ON HER HEAD, WALKING IN THE STREET
- Embargoed: 7th July 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: JENIN, NABLUS AND RAMALLAH; WEST BANK / GAZA CITY AND NETZARIM SETTLEMENT; GAZA / TEL AVIV, ISRAEL
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Reuters ID: LVA78W9X11PWAXNYZ47WC7230WP1
- Story Text: Israeli soldiers have fired on a market in the West
Bank city of Jenin, killing two children and a man and
wounding many other Palestinians who mistakenly thought a
curfew had been lifted.
Hospital officials said a seven-year-old girl, a
six-year-old boy and the deputy director of the city's
department of education had been killed and dozens of people
wounded by machinegun fire and tank shelling.
Israeli tanks killed three Palestinians who mistakenly
thought a curfew had been lifted on Friday (June 21, 2002) in the
West Bank city of Jenin.
Hospital officials said a six-year-old boy and a
seven-year-old girl were killed along with the deputy director
of the city's education department who was aged around 50.
Twenty-six people were wounded, they said.
Hours earlier, a Palestinian gunman killed five Israelis,
including three children and their mother, in a West Bank
Jewish settlement, prompting Israel to send tanks into the
Palestinian-ruled city of Nablus.
The violence, including two suicide bombings that killed
26 Israelis, has complicated efforts to end nearly 21 months
of conflict and prompted U.S. President George W. Bush to
delay his announcement of a new vision for Middle East peace.
The Israeli army said it fired two tank shells to warn
away a group of Palestinians who violated the curfew in Jenin,
and approached them as the troops searched for a bomb factory.
"As a result of the shooting three Palestinians were
killed and 10 others were wounded. An initial inquiry
indicates that the force erred in its action," an army
statement said.
Palestinian witnesses and international peace activists in
Jenin said people had emerged from their homes to stock up
with supplies after tanks pulled back from the city centre.
Rumours spread that the army had scrapped the curfew it
imposed when it entered Jenin on Tuesday (June 18) in what it
said was an operation intended to seek out militants waging an
uprising against Israeli occupation.
A Reuters cameraman saw four corpses at the hospital.
Hospital officals said the fourth was that of a boy killed
when a building collapsed on Thursday (June 20) night after
Israeli forces blew up an unoccupied house next door.
Dozens of tanks and armoured vehicles rumbled in Nablus in
the early hours of Friday morning, in what appeared to be at
least the beginning of Israel's response to this week's new
wave of Palestinian attacks.
Palestinian witnesses and security officials said Israeli
troops entered Nablus from three directions. There were no
immediate reports of injuries or resistance.
Israel vowed this week to retake and hold parts of
Palestinian territories in response to further attacks,
extending the duration of what had been regular army raids
into West Bank cities to arrest militants in recent months.
Speaking in Ramallah, Palestinian President Yasser gave
his response to the incursion into Nablus.
"What happened this morning in Nablus, which is still
under Israeli fire, by tanks and helicopters, is part of the
conspiracy in which they are declaring that they have finished
two stages of their military operation, with four more to
come," he told reporters.
In another incident, a Palestinian opened fire and threw
grenades at an Israeli force at the Erez border crossing on
Friday, as Palestinian workers were waiting to enter an
Israeli industrial park. Soldiers shot him dead and two
Palestinian labourers were killed in the exchange of fire, a
statement said, adding the incident was under investigation.
Meanwhile, an Israeli soldier was seriously wounded in a
Palestinian attack near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in
the Gaza Strip, Israeli security sources said.
Later, a Palestinian child was killed and five other
Palestinins were wounded by Israeli gunfire near the scene of
the Netzarim attack, Palestinian security and hospital
officials said.
The child's body was taken to Shifa hospital in Gaza.
As violence in the Middle East escalates, Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon has convened his cabinet to weigh a
further call-up of army reservists and a widening of military
operations in the West Bank.
As the cabinet ministers arrived for the meeting, a group
of right-wing protesters carrying banners attempted to block
the road.
At least 1,408 Palestinians and 547 Israelis have been
killed since the Palestinian revolt began in September 2000.
As violence in the Middle East escalated, Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon on Friday convened his cabinet to weigh
a further call-up of army reservists and a widening of
military operations in the West Bank.
As the cabinet ministers arrived for the meeting, a group
of right-wing protesters, carrying large banners, chanted
anti-Sharon slogans and attempted to block the road.
Some protesters had to be forcibly removed by security.
Israel's army began a limited call up of reserve soldiers
on Thursday (June 20) after the government said it would
re-occupy some Palestinian territories in response to a new
wave of suicide bombings.
Israeli media said the call up would mobilise specific
reserve units to reinforce conscripts on active duty, probably
in prolonged incursions into Palestinian-ruled areas of the
West Bank.
In March, Israel called up more than 20,000 reservists at
the start of a largescale West Bank offensive after a spate of
suicide bombings during the Jewish holiday of Passover.
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