August 21, 2004

The IDF sends troops back into Nablus and neighboring Balata r.c., blowing up a metal workshop, conducting house searches, shooting and seriously wounding 1 Palestinian. The IDF also fatally shoots a mentally handicapped Palestinian who strays into a closed military zone outside Nussayrat r.c.; sends bulldozers into al-Qarara nr. Khan Yunis under cover of heavy shelling to level houses previously demolished, tear up roads leading to 3 residential neighborhoods; fires on residential areas of Rafah. 10s of Jewish settlers in Hebron break windows, attempt to set fire to furniture in several Palestinian homes, destroy a water pumping station and a generator; the IDF observes but does not intervene. (AFP 8/21; PCHR 8/26)