MIDDLE EAST: PALESTINIAN MILITANT SHOOTS DEAD ISRAELI SETTLER IN WEST BANK AMBUSH/ ISRAELI FORCES CONTINUE RAIDS IN HEBRON AND NABLUS.

Record ID: 640513

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: PALESTINIAN MILITANT SHOOTS DEAD ISRAELI SETTLER IN WEST BANK AMBUSH/ ISRAELI FORCES CONTINUE RAIDS IN HEBRON AND NABLUS.
  • Date: 5th August 2002
  • Summary: (W4) HEBRON, WEST BANK (AUGUST 5, 2002) (REUTERS) GV/MV/CU: PEOPLE WHO WERE TOLD THEIR HOUSE WILL BE DEMOLISHED LOADING THEIR BELONGINGS ON A TRUCK; PEOPLE MOVING THEIR BELONGINGS; WOMEN AND CHILDREN; WOMAN BREASTFEEDING HER CHILD (5 SHOTS) (W5) HEBRON, WEST BANK (AUGUST 5, 2002) (REUTERS) GV/PAN/GV: PALESTINIAN MEN BEING STOPPED AND LED AWAY FOR QUESTIONING BY ISRAELI SOLDIERS; MEN FACING WALL (3 SHOTS) (W5) NABLUS, WEST BANK (AUGUST 5, 2002) (REUTERS) GV/PAN/GV/MV: TANKS IN STREETS OF OLD CITY, PALESTINIANS BEING STOPPED; APC DRIVING THROUGH STREETS; ISRAELI SOLDIERS; PEOPLE IN ALLEYWAY (5 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 20th August 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NEAR RAMALLAH, NABLUS AND HEBRON, WEST BANK/ SAFED, SAJOUR, TEL AVIV, ISRAEL/ JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Crime,General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVADVL7IO64UD0QFMU5KHIT57CL4
  • Story Text: A Palestinian militant has shot dead a Jewish settler couple in a West Bank ambush in the early morning hours on Monday, bringing to 13 the number of people killed in a fresh wave of attacks within 24 hours.
    Following the attacks, Israel has said it would further restrict Palestinian travel around West Bank cities, continue to raze the homes of the assailants, and deport family members whose complicity in the attacks haas been proven.
    In the latest shooting attack on Monday (August 5), a Palestinian gunmen shot at the car of a Jewish settler family as it drove towards the West Bank city of Ramallah, killing two parents instantly and wounding their children, aged three years and six months, the Israeli army said.
    On Sunday (August 4) a Hamas suicide bomber killed nine people by detonating a bomb on a bus in northern Israel packed with soldiers, civilians on holiday and religious Jews on pilgrimage to the grave of a Jewish sage. Three Israeli soldiers and two Filipino women were among the dead. Hamas said it was its latest act of revenge for an Israeli air strike that killed its military commander and 14 other Palestinians, mostly civilians, in July.
    Hundreds of mourners gathered on Monday (August 5) for the funeral of one of the victims of the bus bombing, 19-year-old Meisun Hassan from Israel's Druze village of Sajour.
    Within hours of the bus attack, a Palestinian gunman opened fire on Israelis in a Palestinian market area of East Jerusalem, killing one Israeli. A Palestinian bystander was killed in an ensuing shootout with police in which the gunman was shot dead.
    The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group linked to President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, claimed responsibility for the Jerusalem shooting, al-Manar television said in Beirut.
    Israel responded to the attacks by further restricting Palestinian travel around most West Bank cities and declaring it will continue to raze the homes of the assailants, and deport family members whose complicity in the attacks has been proven.
    Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon characterized the violence as a war on Monday (August 5) during a meeting with a group of supporters for Jerusalems Hebrew University, struck by a bombing last week in which at least seven people were killed.
    "After these terrible events, as you know we had some more afterwards, we are in the middle of a war," Sharon said.
    Faced with a rising phenomenon of suicide bombings -- there have been 88 such attacks in less than two years -- Israel has stepped up its policy of demolishing bombers' families' homes to dissuade Palestinians from joining the ranks of suicide bombers.
    Visiting a recruitment centre in Tel Aviv on Monday (August 5) Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Israel would enforce a policy of punitive measures against the families of suicide bombers, including demolition of houses, appropriation of property and deportation.
    He also threatened a further clampdown on the Palestinian areas now controlled by Israeli forces.
    "We will continue with a long series of measures which I cannot speak of now whose aim is to implement a much wider closure than we are doing now," he said.
    Since a Palestinian revolt began almost two years ago, more than 240 Israelis have been killed by suicide bombers.
    Israel says there is no failsafe way to prevent all suicide attacks.
    In the past, Israel has invoked an archaic British emergency law left from Britain's mandate over the area more than 54 years ago to demolish the houses of the families of militants.
    But the policy of razing homes has become widespread in recent days after the government voted to punish the families of militants by either destroying their houses or deporting them from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip.
    More than 11 homes belonging to the families of militants have been bulldozed or blown up in the past four days alone.
    On Monday (August 5), Israeli High Court began hearing a case brought by a group of Palestinian families appealing the order to level their homes.
    Lawyer Andrei Rosenthal, who is representing the Palestinian families said: "We saw a spate of bombings yesterday around the whole area, even though the night before nine houses were demolished. Therefore I ask where is the deterrent factor and on what the evaluation is based that this is a deterrent force."
    Many Israeli and Palestinian analysts are sceptical about whether the demolitions will do anything more than sow hatred among Palestinians and thus make it easier for Palestinian militants plotting suicide bombings to recruit attackers.
    In the West Bank of Hebron the family of a teenager who opened fire on an Israeli truck in East Jerusalem on Sunday has abandoned their home, pre-empting the Israeli troops they expect to arrive with the intention of demolishing their home.
    The teenager gunman and two other people were killed in the attack and the ensuing shootout with police.
    The day after, members of the Asaya family and helpful neighbours began to move the family's furniture and possessions out of the house into waiting vans.
    On Monday (August 5) Israel imposed a complete ban on Palestinian travel in most of the West Bank and used tanks to seal off part of the Gaza Strip in response to the assaults.
    Troops carried out arrests in the West Bank town of Nablus, where they recently penetrated the ancient Casbah, or Old City, in pursuit of militants.
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