Egyptian border police blow up 2 smuggling tunnels under the Rafah border, killing 5 Palestinians, wounding 4. In the West Bank, the IDF fires tear gas, percussion grenades at a European Union delegation visiting the separation wall in Ni‘lin (seriously injuring their Palestinian guide), then firing rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas at Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists who gather at the scene to protest, injuring 4 Palestinians and a British journalist; steps up patrols around Hebron, randomly checking Palestinian IDs; conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches in Dahaysha r.c. (firing live ammunition and percussion grenades inside a home, seriously injuring a Palestinian teenager and his father), nr. Bethlehem, Hebron, Tulkarm. (NYT, OCHA 9/24; PCHR 9/25)
Tuesday, September 23, 2008