October 6, 2005

The IDF raids al-Quds Open University campus in Hebron, holds 52 students and staff for interrogation for 3 hrs. until the Temporary International Presence in Hebron intervenes; raids, searches Palestinian homes nr. Nablus, Ramallah; conducts late night arrest raids, house searches in and around Ramallah, nr. Bethlehem. Also in Gaza, 1 Italian, 1 French journalist are kidnapped, quickly released by unidentified gunmen who say they wanted to pressure the PA to address employment issues in the Strip. In Bayt Lahiya, suspected militant Fatah mbrs. shoot, wound PA military intelligence official Bassam Azzam (who was close to assassinated military intelligence cmdr. Musa Arafat). Later, suspected Hamas mbrs. kidnap, shoot, then dump seriously wounded senior Fatah official Samir al-Juz in Bayt Lahiya. Soon after, a previously unknown group calling itself the Omar Bin al-Khattab Brigades (OBKB; suspected to be made up of disaffected PA General Intelligence officers angry over the 10/2 clashes) kidnaps senior Hamas mbrs. (Bassam Obeido, Hassan Safi, Ra’id Raz) in Bethlehem, Hebron, and Tulkarm, stating that “this is a response to Hamas’s violations and disregard for law and order and their attacks on security institutions and Palestinian leaders.... This is our first response”; Hamas blames elements of Fatah; the AMB says it is not involved. (HA, IMEMC, JAZ 10/6; Irish Examiner 10/7; AFP, NYT 10/8; MEI 10/12; PCHR 10/13)