Israel gives residency status to 3,500 Palestinians living “illegally” in the West Bank, marking the 1st application approvals in 10 yrs., but refuses to act on similar cases of 1,500 Palestinians in Gaza. The Israeli navy fires on Palestinian fishing boats off the Rafah coast, forcing them to return to shore. Palestinians fire at least 1 rocket fr. Gaza toward Israel that lands inside the Strip, injuring a Palestinian teenager inside his home. In the West Bank, the IDF sends undercover units dressed as PA security officers into the Old City of Nablus, where they fatally shoot 2 Palestinians in what may be an assassination (names and affiliations of the dead men are not reported); conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Nablus, in alArub r.c., nr. Bethlehem, Hebron. Armed Jewish settlers close a road linking the villages of Dura and Khirbat Salama nr. Hebron; the IDF intervenes to reopen the road. In Hebron, 4 unidentified gunmen fatally shoot a suspected Palestinian collaborator with Israel. (NYT, PCHR 10/11; OCHA 10/17; PCHR 10/18; REU 10/20)
Wednesday, October 10, 2007