WEST BANK: Palestinians in Nablus mourn the deaths of three militants killed by Israeli troops in West Bank raid.

Record ID: 565340

  • Title: WEST BANK: Palestinians in Nablus mourn the deaths of three militants killed by Israeli troops in West Bank raid.
  • Date: 22nd December 2005
  • Summary: BODIES BEING CARRIED OUT ON STREETS; MOURNERS MARCHING WITH BODY ON STRETCHER, CHANTING GOD IS GREATEST
  • Embargoed: 6th January 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVADKZA4A99K2LU4GR8ZGTBO55TX
  • Story Text: Palestinians mourned the deaths of three militants killed by Israeli forces in a West Bank raid on Thursday (December 22). Bodies of three Palestinian militants were brought to the morgue in the West Bank city of Nablus where crowds wept and chanted 'God is Greatest' as they carried the bodies through the streets. The Israeli army said soldiers opened fire at three wanted Palestinians fleeing a building in order to avoid arrest, but could not confirm their condition. Medics said that the Israeli army had told Palestinian security officials that two militants were killed in the raid, and that a third was apparently wounded. Israeli troops arrested 14 suspected militants in overnight raids in the West Bank, the army said, territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War that Palestinians seek for a state.

    Israel has stepped up its raids of militant hideouts in Palestinian cities since a Dec. 5 suicide bombing that killed five at a shopping mall in central Israel. Israeli soldiers often raid West Bank towns and cities in search of suspected militants.

    Meanwhile, Palestinian officials say the raids undermine efforts to maintain a shaky 10-month-old ceasefire whilst Israel says they are carried out to prevent attacks. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas coaxed Hamas and other factions behind a five-year Palestinian revolt into honouring the ceasefire until the end of 2005.

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