- Title: WEST BANK: Following deadly suicide attack Israel seals off northern West Bank
- Date: 30th December 2005
- Summary: (BN08) BEIT KAHEL, NEAR HEBRON, WEST BANK (DECEMBER 30, 2005) (REUTERS) SLV BODY OF PALESTINIAN KILLED IN BLAST BEING BROUGHT TO FAMILY HOUSE VARIOUS OF WOMEN WEEPING OVER BODY SCU SISTER OF DEAD MAN CRYING (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SISTER SAYING " My brother is a martyr."
- Embargoed: 14th January 2006 12:00
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- Reuters ID: LVA7HGB2TUON4SDIRM4D367GBUSV
- Story Text: Israeli troops continued to seal off northern West Bank cities on Friday (December 30), a day after a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up when Israeli soldiers tried to search him at a roadblock near Tulkarm, killing an Israeli soldier and two other Palestinians. Israeli tanks and troops deployed around the cities of Tulkarm and Qalqilya, imposing a blockade and restricting Palestinian travellers. The army said the roadblock, where the bomber exploded, had been set up in response to intelligence warnings that a bomber was heading to Israel to strike during the current Hanukkah holiday. One soldier was killed and two other Palestinians died, the army said. Three soldiers and six Palestinians were wounded. In the village of Beit Kahel, near the West Bank city of Hebron, mourners gathered to lay to rest a Palestinian man, killed by the blast. Several hundred mourners arrived at the family house of the man, a member of the militant group of Hamas, who happened to be in the site when the bomb went off. They surrounded the body which was wrapped in a Hamas green flag. The bombing dealt a blow to the shaky 10-month-old truce by militants that is due to expire on Saturday (December 31). Growing violence has put peacemaking hopes on hold and could influence forthcoming elections on both sides. Israel Radio said the Islamic Jihad militant group carried out the attack. The same group was behind the last suicide bombing in Israel, when five Israelis were killed on Dec. 6 at a shopping mall in the coastal city of Netanya. Islamic Jihad officials in Gaza could not confirm that the group was responsible, but vowed to strike "in the depth of the Zionist entity" to retaliate for Israel's imposition since Wednesday (December 28) of a "no-go zone" in the northern Gaza Strip. Israeli government accused Islamic Jihad's leadership in Syria of planning the bombing.
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