- Title: WEST BANKI: Israeli troops kill Palestinian militant during raid
- Date: 21st January 2008
- Summary: ELDERLY WOMAN ACCOMPANYING BY MEN CRYING AND SHOUTING
- Embargoed: 5th February 2008 12:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Religion
- Reuters ID: LVA2XTSNTIEXA547IX4CQN2JNMTL
- Story Text: Israeli forces killed a Palestinian militant on Monday (January 21) during a raid on a West Bank town.
Israeli troops surrounded a house belonging to a Palestinian militant in a village near the West Bank town of Tulkarem. According to Palestinian witnesses, troops shot dead Murad al-Bash, a member of the Islamic Jihad, after demolishing his home.
Shouting and crying, the local residents evacuated the body to a local hospital.
Palestinian officials have previously criticised Israel for mounting military sweeps in the West Bank, saying such intervention was undermining a Western-backed internal Palestinian security plan.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad masterminded a security plan with Western help after President Mahmoud Abbas' government lost control of Gaza to Islamist Hamas in June.
Last month Palestinian security forces deployed in the West Bank cities of Nablus, Tulkarem and Bethlehem but Israeli forces continued to conduct frequent raids into the Palestinian controlled territories.
Palestinian authorities say the deployment of their police in the West Bank cities has brought calm, with suspects arrested and weapons seized.
But Israel fears that any West Bank areas it hands over to the Palestinians, like the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, could be used by militants as launching pads for attacks on Israeli towns. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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