Four Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in Ramallah

Palestinians help an injured youth during
clashes with Israeli soldiers in the center of the
West Bank town of Ramallah. Four Palestinians
were shot dead during an Israeli raid in the heart
of the West Bank's administrative capital that also
resulted in the capture of a leading Islamic Jihad militant.
(AFP/Abbas Momani)

by Nasser Abu Bakr

May 24, 2006

Yahoo News

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - Four Palestinians were shot dead during an Israeli raid in the heart of the West Bank administrative capital that also resulted in the capture of a leading Islamic Jihad militant.

The Israeli killings in the West Bank came on the eve of Palestinian cross-party crisis talks in Ramallah designed to put a lid on factional violence that claimed two more lives in the Gaza Strip.

And Palestinian foreign minister Mahmud al-Zahar accused Israel of seeking to torpedo Thursday's talks by escalating the violence in the Palestinian territories.

"We condemn this crime and demand that the international community exert pressure to make Israel stop its attacks," he said in a statement.

Around 60 other Palestinians were wounded during the Ramallah operation to arrest Mohammed al-Shubaki, the commander of Jihad in the Qalqilya area of the northern West Bank.

His capture came a day after Israeli troops also arrested the overall head of the governing Hamas movement's armed wing in Ramallah.

According to Palestinian security sources, the Israeli forces entered Ramallah to provide back-up for a unit of elite undercover soldiers who were already operating in the town.

An Israeli army spokesman said the forces opened fire after they came under attack from gunmen.

The deaths in Ramallah overshadowed another bout of intra-factional violence in Gaza with a Hamas follower killed after being abducted in the southern town of Khan Yunis and a Palestinian security officer killed in a Gaza City blast.

The Hamas activist, Salim Qadih, died of his injuries after being kidnapped along with two other members of the group's armed wing by unknown gunmen outside a mosque in the southern town.

The three were then dumped in the road several hours later before being rushed to the town's Nasser hospital for emergency treatment.

Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, the shooting came amid a spate of armed clashes between supporters of the governing Hamas faction and followers of the former ruling Fatah movement.

Hours later, a Fatah follower who was an officer in the preventive security force was killed and another wounded when a device exploded in the path of their moving vehicle. There was no initial claim of responsibility.

The tensions between Hamas and Fatah have been growing by the day, exacerbated by Hamas's decision to deploy members of its own volunteer force while Abbas, the de facto leader of Fatah, was travelling abroad.

Under the terms of the Palestinian basic law, responsibility for security is meant to be the remit of Abbas.

The ranks of the police and other security branches remain stuffed with Fatah supporters despite the faction's defeat at the hands of Hamas in January parliamentary elections.

A Jordanian driver was killed and nine Palestinians wounded on Monday when the rival forces became embroiled in an armed confrontation outside the Gaza branch of the Palestinian parliament.

Abbas has said he hopes that the two-day "national dialogue" which he will host in Ramallah from Thursday will help lower the tensions between the factions.

"The entire world is aware that our national cause is in danger and we should therefore work for the success of this dialogue," he said on Tuesday.

Ismail Haniya, the prime minister of the Hamas-led government, is to participate in the talks via videophone from Gaza owing to Israeli-imposed travel restrictions on the Islamists.