The IDF reopens the Rafah checkpoint where some 2,500 Palestinians have been stranded on the Egyptian border since 7/18; some 1,400 enter today; it is expected to take 2 more days for all 2,500 to cross. The IDF also fatally shoots an Islamic Jihad mbr. attempting to lay a roadside bomb outside a Gaza settlement; fatally shoots wanted Hamas mbr. Muhammad Balasma nr. Nablus in what may be an assassination; fatally shoots a Palestinian teenager nr. the Qarni crossing into Israel; fires on residential areas of Rafah; demolishes 2 Palestinian homes in Dahaysha r.c.; conducts arrest raids, house searches in Bethlehem, Hebron, several villages around Jenin. (BBC, MM 8/6; VOI, VOP 8/6, YA 8/7 in WNC 8/10; NYT, WP, WT 8/7; NYT 8/8; PR 8/11; PCHR 8/12)
Friday, August 6, 2004