Responding to Israel’s 2/7 electricity cuts, Palestinians fire 21 rockets fr. Gaza into Israel, causing slight damage but no injuries. The IDF sends tanks, bulldozers into Gaza e. of al-Qarara to level land along the border. In the West Bank, the IDF sends troops into Azun nr. Qalqilya, imposing a curfew, firing on residential areas, conducting arrest raids and house searches (troops are still in the village and the curfew in place at the end of the day); patrols in Tulkarm; conducts arrest raids, house searches nr. Jenin; fires rubber-coated steel bullets, percussion grenades, tear gas at Palestinian, Israeli, international activists taking part in the weekly nonviolent demonstration against the separation wall in Bil‘in (injuring 1). (NYT, WP 2/9; OCHA 2/13; PCHR 2/14)
Friday, February 8, 2008