Wednesday, June 18, 2003

The IDF fires on a Palestinian cell phone company car in Dayr al-Balah, wounding 2 company workers; demolishes 3 Palestinian homes nr. Rafah (also bulldozing 5 dunams of land), 1 in Jenin, 1 nr. Khan Yunis (also bulldozing 3 dunams of land), 1 nr. Nablus; bulldozes a Palestinian gas station in Silwan; conducts arrest raids in Askar r.c., Bayt Lahia, Bethlehem, Hebron; searches homes in Jenin, Qalqilya, Ramallah (including ransacking the home of a Palestinian-American family); fires on residential areas of Bayt Lahia; tightens the closure on Tulkarm. In Hebron, 6 IDF soldiers reportedly severely beat a Palestinian teenager, kicking him, hitting him with their rifle butts. Palestinians fire a Qassam rocket at Native Haasara moshav inside Israel, causing damage but no injuries. A Palestinian dies of injuries received in the 6/10 attempted assassination of Rantisi, bringing that toll to 4. A Tel Aviv court sentences a 17-yr.-old Israeli Arab to 2 yrs. in jail for planning to carry out a suicide bombing; the court says the sentence is light because the boy turned himself in to authorities. (HA, HP 6/18; MENA 6/18 in WNC 6/20; LAW, PCHR, WT 6/19; PCHR 6/26)