The IDF makes a major raid on Dayr al-Balah, firing on stone-throwing youths, searching homes, demolishing 1 Palestinian home, bulldozing 12 d. of agricultural land, killing 4 Palestinians (including a 14-yr.-old boy), wounding 52 Palestinians. The IDF also raids, searches several kindergartens, schools run by the Muslim Youth Association in Hebron; conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Nablus, nr. Hebron, and in Ramallah and Tulkarm r.c.; fires on residential areas nr. Nablus; burns 10 d. of olive groves west of Hebron to create open space btwn. Nahal Negohot settlement and settlements further west. Some 3,000 Palestinian prisoners end an 18-day hunger strike, achieving few of their goals; prisoners acknowledge that their strike was poorly timed, gained little international coverage, was slowly dissolving. (REU 9/2; MENA, VOI, VOP, YA 9/2 in WNC 9/4; MM, NYT, PCHR, WP, WT 9/3; VOP 9/3 in WNC 9/7; HJ, SA 9/7 in WNC 9/9; PR 9/8; PCHR 9/9)
Thursday, September 2, 2004