The IDF makes air strikes on a rocketlaunching site in n. Gaza (decapitating a 12-yr.-old Palestinian boy, wounding another child), a group of unidentified armed Palestinians in Gaza City (wounding 4), and a group of Hamas mbrs. in Gaza City (killing 2 Hamas mbrs., wounding 3); sends armored vehicles, bulldozers into Gaza to level land around the Qarni industrial zone. IDF troops on the central Gaza border nr. Juhur al-Dik exchange fire with armed Palestinians inside Gaza, causing no reported injuries; troops later shell farmers working a field in the same area, killing 1 Palestinian farmer, wounding 2. Israeli naval vessels fire on Palestinian fishing boats off the Rafah coast, forcing them to return to shore. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches in and around Hebron and Nablus, nr. Tulkarm. The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that since 5/16, Jewish settlers have seized and leveled 200 d. of Palestinian land around Revava Settlement nr. Salfit for construction of settler-only bypass roads. (OCHA, WP 5/21; PCHR 5/22)
Tuesday, May 20, 2008