IDF makes an air strike demolishing an AMB building in Gaza City; blows up a Palestinian home in Jenin that allegedly stored explosives; conducts arrest raids, house searches nr. Jenin and in Bethlehem, Hebron, Tulkarm. Palestinians fire a rocket fr. Gaza into Israel, causing no damage or injuries. Abbas dispatches mbrs. of Force 17, the presidential guard, to take control of PA operations at the Rafah crossing, relieving PA security forces controlled by the Interior Min. (MM 4/11; MM, NYT 4/12; PCHR 4/13)
Israel’s acting FM Tzipi Livni says that any Palestinian “fighting against Israeli soldiers is an enemy and we will fight back, but I believe that this is not under the definition of terrorism,” only those “who take the lives of civilians are terrorists.” Says that the international community should “stop calling terrorists those who are freedom fighters.” (AFP, IFM 4/11)