WEST BANK: ISRAELI TROOPS CLASH WITH STONE-THROWING PALESTINANS IN RAMALLAH AND PROTESTERS IN BEIT SURIK

Record ID: 400397

  • Title: WEST BANK: ISRAELI TROOPS CLASH WITH STONE-THROWING PALESTINANS IN RAMALLAH AND PROTESTERS IN BEIT SURIK
  • Date: 25th February 2004
  • Summary: (U3) RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (FEBRUARY 25, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. YOUTHS THROWING ROCKS 0.10 2. SLV: PEACE ACTIVIST STANDING IN FRONT OF POLICE VEHICLE 0.16 3. YOUTHS THROWING STONES AND RUNNING 0.22 4. PAN: PEACE ACTIVIST HIT BY STONES, WHISTLING, SCREAMING 0.43 5. ACTIVIST PICKED UP, CARRIED AWAY 0.55 6. TRACKING SHOT OF Y
  • Embargoed: 11th March 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: RAMALLAH AND BEIT SURIK, WEST BANK
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVAD8FBPE79N4NOJZK66Q6RDCW0R
  • Story Text: Israeli troops have clashed with stone-throwing
    Palestinians in Ramallah and with protesters in
    Beit Surik in the West Bank.


    Israeli troops fired teargas and rubber bullets to
    drive back Palestinians throwing rocks and petrol bombs on
    Wednesday (February 25) during Israel's biggest raid on the
    city containing Yasser Arafat's headquarters for months.

    The soldiers stormed the branches of three banks in
    Ramallah in what an Israeli security source called a "very
    focused activity". He said there was no plan to target
    Palestinian President Arafat, penned into his
    shell-battered 'Muqata' compound.

    Shouting through loudhailers, Israeli troops declared a
    curfew in some districts and ordered people off the streets.

    Palestinians rained stones on the Israeli jeeps. Flames
    leapt from one of the vehicles as it was struck by a
    Molotov cocktail. Palestinian medics said two protesters
    had been injured by rubber bullets.

    "This is provocation. They are asking for Palestinian
    retaliation. I do not see any justification," Arafat aide
    Tayeb Abdel-Rahim told Reuters.

    Israeli soldiers sealed off two branches of the Arab
    Bank and one branch of the Cairo-Amman Bank and began to
    search inside.

    The Israeli source did not say why the banks had been
    targeted. He had no comment on whether there was a link to
    Ramallah raid and one earlier on Wednesday on the offices
    of an Islamic charity in the West Bank city of Tulkarm.

    Israeli troops have occasionally raided banks and
    Islamic charities during more than three years of violence,
    saying their aim is to cut off funding for militants who
    have killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide attacks.

    Israeli intelligence sources calculate it costs only a
    few thousand dollars to carry out a suicide bombing like
    the one which killed eight people in a Jerusalem bus last
    Sunday (February 22).

    Also on Wednesday in Beit Surik in the West Bank,
    around 2,000 Palestinians and left-wing Israelis clashed
    with Israeli soldiers during a demonstration against the
    separation barrier.

    More than 200 Palestinian children and youths started
    throwing stones at the army soldiers. Several schoolgirls
    chanted "God is great".

    Israel faces a third day of condemnation at the World
    Court from countries backing the Palestinians in their case
    against a vast barrier the Jewish state is building in the
    West Bank.

    In the last two days, most Arab and Muslim states urged
    the court to declare the chain of fences and walls illegal.

    Israel says it needs the metal-and-concrete barrier to
    keep out Palestinian suicide bombers. Palestinians call it
    a land-grab to deny them a viable state.

    Israel has stayed away from the hearings that began on
    Monday (February 23), disputing the World Court's right to
    pronounce on what it sees as a politically motivated case.

    The United States and European Union shunned the
    hearings, despite criticising the barrier's route. They say
    the court's involvement could harm Middle East peacemaking
    efforts.

    The court's ruling will not be binding, but it could
    influence world opinion and the Palestinians hope it could
    pave the way for international sanctions against Israel.


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