The IDF expands operations in n. Gaza, launching an air strike on a minivan in Gaza City, assassinating Hamas cmdr. Luay alBurnu, 2 other Hamas mbrs.; shelling Jabaliya r.c., killing 1 Hamas mbr., wounding 4; later making an air strike on Jabaliya, killing 2 Hamas mbrs., wounding a by stander in what may be an assassination. An IDF sniper fatally shoots a 12-yr.-old Palestinian girl in the head in Gaza; the IDF say he was aiming at an armed Palestinian. In Bayt Hanun, the IDF fatally shoots a Hamas mbr. in exchanges that also leave an IDF officer seriously wounded; fires an antitank rocket to demolish the home of a Palestinian militant, collapsing the walls of a neighboring home, killing a Palestinian civilian; demolishes at least 4 other Palestinian homes; continues house to house searches; lifts the curfew for 3 hrs. to let residents buy food. IDF operations along the Rafah border also continue. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Ramallah, in Jenin and Nablus; demolishes a Palestinian home in Bethlehem. (NYT, WP, WT 11/5; PCHR 11/9)
Saturday, November 4, 2006