Thursday, May 28, 2009

Obama receives PA pres. Abbas at the White House, praising the PA’s security efforts and refusal to join a unity government with Hamas until it meets 1/06 Quartet demands to renounce violence and recognize Israel’s right to exist, but stressing that the PA must do much more to improve West Bank security. (NYT, WP, WT 5/29)

In the West Bank, the IDF makes a predawn raid on caves in the hills nr. Hebron, killing senior Hamas military cmdr. ‘Abd al-Majid Dudin, wanted by Israel for 14 yrs., in an exchange of gunfire; conducts rare daytime house searches nr. Hebron and Nablus, making no arrests; makes synchronized late-night arrest raids, house searches in 4 villages nr. Jenin. (OCHA 5/28; NYT, WP 5/29; OCHA, PCHR 6/4)