Overnight in Gaza, the IDF launches arrest raids, house searches in al-Nazaz nr. Bayt Hanun, firing on residential areas (wounding 1 Palestinian), demolishing 1 Palestinian home, damaging 7 others, bulldozing 12 d. of agricultural land, temporarily detaining 7 Palestinians for questioning, withdrawing fr. the area in the evening; sends troops into al-Fakhari in s. Gaza to conduct arrest raids, house searches. Palestinians fire several mortars at the IDF post at Kerem Shalom crossing, causing no damage or injuries; the IDF responds by firing 2 surface-to-surface missiles at 2 mortar-launching sites, causing no reported injuries. In the West Bank, the IDF sends troops into Balata r.c., where they ambush, fatally shoot wanted AMB mbr. Yusif al-Assi in an apparent assassination (Assi’s name was not included in lists of AMB mbrs. given amnesty by Israel last quarter; see Quarterly Update in JPS 145); exchanges fire with Palestinian gunmen in ‘Ayn Bayt al-Ma’a and neighboring Nablus, wounding 1 armed Palestinian; conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Hebron (also presenting a PA security officer with an order to surrender for questioning with Israeli intelligence). A Jewish settler in Hebron seriously injures a 7-yr.-old Palestinian boy in a deliberate hit-and-run. (OCHA 9/19; PCHR 9/20)
Saturday, September 15, 2007