GAZA/WEST BANK: Israeli airstrike kills five Palestinians in Gaza/ Palestinians demonstrate in support of Hamas and against U.S led policy/ Jewish settlers scuffle with Israeli troops in Hebron

Record ID: 837416

  • Title: GAZA/WEST BANK: Israeli airstrike kills five Palestinians in Gaza/ Palestinians demonstrate in support of Hamas and against U.S led policy/ Jewish settlers scuffle with Israeli troops in Hebron
  • Date: 6th May 2006
  • Summary: (BN11)NABLUS, WEST BANK (MAY 5, 2006) (REUTERS) ISRAELI JEEP CORNERS A WOMAN VARIOUS OF SEVERAL WOMEN THROWING STONES ON ISRAELI JEEPS ISRAELI SOLDIERS ENTERING PALESTINIAN HOME IN SEARCH OF MILITANTS WOMEN AND CHILDREN WAIT OUTSIDE VARIOUS OF MEN CARRYING MOHAMMED Al-KHUTOUB, A PALESTINIAN MAN KILLED BY ISRAELI TROOPS, ON STRETCHER INTO AMBULANCE AMBULANCE LEAVING
  • Embargoed: 21st May 2006 13:00
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  • Topics: Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVAAP7KHY45C767FXAPQVYJ38FL8
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  • Story Text: An Israeli airstrike killed four Palestinians on Friday (May 5), targeting a training camp used by militants in Gaza City, Palestinian medics and witnesses said.
    They said the airstrike targeted a camp used by the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), an umbrella group of militants that often fires makeshift rockets into Israel.
    An Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed the airstrike, saying that the Israeli airforce conducted an aerial attack on a training compound of the PRC while 'terrorists' were training there.
    Palestinian medics and witnesses named one of the dead as Juma Doghmash, brother of Mumtaz Doghmash, a PRC commander sought by Israel.
    Mumtaz Doghmash was not among the dead, they added.
    Outside the hospital, where the dead men were taken, PRC gunmen fired their rifles into the air chanting revenge against Israel.
    The Israeli army has recently stepped up air strikes against militants and well as artillery barrages against what it says are rocket launch sites used by militants.
    Meanwhile Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian youth during a raid in the West bank, Palestinian witnesses and medics said.
    They said Mohammed al-Khutoub, 19, had been among stone throwers protesting a raid by Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Nablus.
    Khutoub had been shot in the chest and later died from his wounds, they said, adding that he did not have links with any militant groups.
    Israeli military vehicles rumbled into the narrow alleyways of the refugee camp to arrest Palestinian militants, the army said.
    Troops exchanged fire with Palestinian gunmen and searched homes for wanted militants. Two wanted suspects were arrested according to the Israel Radio.
    Militants at the refugee camp confronted the army jeeps firing at the armoured jeeps and bulldozer which is used by the Israeli army to demolish homes of men wanted by Israel.
    Youths threw stones at the army vehicles driving throughout the narrow streets of the Balata refugee camp, the raid still continues witnesses and the army says.
    An Israeli army spokeswoman said Israeli forces had been on an operation in the city and had arrested a wanted member of militant group The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
    The force identified a Palestinian man who was ready to throw a molotov cocktail at them and they opened fire and identified hitting him, the spokeswoman added.
    She said live ammunition had been used.
    The spokeswoman added that separately during the raid, a second Palestinian was identified being hit in the leg after trying to detonate an explosive device at troops.
    Earlier tens of thousands of Hamas supporters rallied across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in support of the militant Hamas-led government which continues to face diplomatic isolation and aid cuts from donors.
    Palestinian officials have warned the economy could collapse within months as Israel and Western countries led by the United States keep up pressure on the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. The West has cut direct aid while Israel has stopped tax transfers.
    The resulting aid cut-off has deepened poverty in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
    In the West Bank city of Ramallah, thousands carrying Hamas flags held a solidarity rally, with collection boxes passed round by Hamas officials.
    Women and young girls also handed over their jewellery as a donation to the stressed Palestinian Authority.
    Supporters in Ramallah cheered as Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh spoke to the crowd via a video link from Gaza.
    In the West Bank town of Nablus, some 3,000 people marched against what they call 'The U.S. policy of starvation and siege," calling on Hamas not to bow to the international community's demands to recognise Israel's right to exist, to denounce violence and to follow with prior agreements.
    In Gaza city, Hamas activists burnt the flags of the United States, Israel and Britain during a support rally for Hamas.
    Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas lawmaker warned of an explosion to come if the policies led by America continued.
    "We affirm to the countries of this world, which are firm in their positions and who are practising the isolation of our Palestinian people. Your isolation is not against Hamas but against our people and this policy is wrong. From experience and in the near future it will be proven that you are dragging the region to an explosive situation," he said.
    Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, has shown no sign to recognising the Jewish state or disarming, key conditions demanded for resuming aid.
    The government has been unable to pay salaries to 165,000 Palestinian Authority workers, whose wages are a key driver of economic activity in Gaza and the West Bank.
    Palestinian officials say U.S. pressure has also thwarted a Hamas-backed plan for the Arab League to deposit donor funds directly into the accounts of workers.
    The government needs $120 million a month for salaries and has failed to pay March and April wages. Officials say it is also unlikely to secure funds for May salaries.
    A Palestinian official said Haniyeh had been contacted by a Saudi Arabian businessman who had donated 8 million Saudi riyals ($2.1 million). It was not clear how the money could reach the government.
    In the West Bank town of Hebron, Israeli troops scuffled with Jewish settlers after Israel's High Court agreed to a government request to delay the eviction of two dozen Jewish settlers from a building in the West Bank city of Hebron by a few days.
    The army declared the area as a closed military zone to prevent settlers from arriving at the compound to resist the eviction.
    Israeli soldiers began deploying around the compound on Thursday night (May 4) when the court cleared the way for security forces to evict the settlers, who have been squatting in the three-story house for a month in a bid to expand their enclave in Hebron.
    It had ordered the settlers to leave by 11.00 a.m. (0800 GMT) on Friday but the government sought a delay because the Jewish Sabbath would start a few hours later. Ownership of the building is claimed by Palestinians.
    The settlers have vowed to stay in what could be an example of the challenge Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faces over his plan to set Israel's borders by removing settlers from parts of the West Bank if peacemaking with the Palestinians remains frozen.
    Olmert has not, however, said what he intends to do with the some 400 settlers who live among 130,000 Palestinians in Hebron, a frequent flashpoint of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
    The court gave Israeli security forces until Monday to carry out the eviction. It gave no timeframe, although Israel Radio said it would take place on Sunday.
    The settlers argue they purchased the property legally from the owners.
    The World Court has branded Israeli settlements built on land captured in the 1967 Middle East war as illegal. Israel disputes this.
    As part of his "convergence plan" for imposing Israel's final borders by 2010, Olmert has pledged to evacuate isolated Jewish settlements in the West Bank while building up several larger blocs in the territory. Palestinians say this would mean the annexing of land and deny them a viable state.
    Israel withdrew some 8,500 settlers from Gaza last year.
    Hebron is holy to both Jews and Muslims as the burial place of biblical patriarchs.
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