IOF troops invade Qalqilia, kill Palestinian teenager and wound 30 others

November 18, 2006

Qalqilia - Hundreds of special units of IOF troops backed with at least 23 military vehicles, bulldozers, and two tanks stormed the West Bank city of Qalqilia Friday night in a bid to capture Hamas field commander in northern West Bank Mohammed Al-Samman.

Palestinian teenager Tarek Ziyad Taha, 18, was shot with Israeli bullets in the back and abdomen in fierce clashes that erupted between stone-throwing Palestinians on the one hand, and the fully geared IOF troops on the other hand.

Taha was rushed to the UNRWA-run hospital in the city but succumbed to his wounds hours later, sources in the hospital affirmed.

The sources added that 30 other Palestinian citizens were wounded in the clashes due to the IOF troops' use of live bullets against them, prompting the hospital to transfer some of the injured Palestinians to hospitals in the nearby Ramallah city due to the seriousness of their injuries.

A number of Palestinian homes were reduced to rubbles by the Israeli bulldozers before IOF troops apprehended Al-Samman's three brothers in a bid to pressure him to surrender. Al-Samman didn’t give up.

Hamas Movement, for its part, urged its cadres in the district to remain vigilant against any possible IOF attempt to arrest them, explaining that the entire operation aims at capturing a number of Hamas cadres in the city in addition to Samman.

Palestinian security sources in the city revealed to the PIC correspondent that more IOF troops were called in to reinforce the intruding troops that imposed a curfew in the city and segregated men, women, and children in the city before using them as human shields during the operation.