The IDF sends troops into Jenin r.c. and town just days after redeploying fr. both, conducting arrest raids (targeting the AMB, Islamic Jihad), clashing with Palestinians; troops pull out by the end of the day. The IDF also fires on residential areas of Rafah, wounding a 14-yr.-old Palestinian in her home; conducts house searches, arrest raids in Wadi al-Silqa, Nablus, Qabatya. Israel reportedly approves changes to the route of the separation wall, so that it will run w. of Azun, Baqa‘ al-Sharqiyya, Khirbat Jabar, and several homes in Tulkarm, all of which were previously slated to be cut off fr. the east; begins work on stretches of the wall outside Hebron and in the Jordan Valley nr. Tubas. (AP, HA 1/9; VOI, VOP 1/9 in WNC 1/13; PCHR 1/15)
Friday, January 9, 2004