Israel delivers fuel to UNRWA in Gaza to keep UN operations going (see 5/4). The IDF sends troops, bulldozers into Abasan, imposing a curfew, firing on residential areas (causing damage but no injuries), bulldozing 3 d. of land before withdrawing in the afternoon; makes a late-night incursion into Bayt Lahiya to raid and search several homes, arresting 3 Palestinians and remanding them to Israel. Also late at night, IDF troops on the Gaza border e. of Bayt Lahiya fire on a group of armed Palestinians nr. the border, killing 1 Hamas mbr., wounding 1. A smuggling tunnel under the Rafah border collapses, killing 1 Palestinian, injuring 4. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches in and around Nablus, nr. Hebron. (WP 5/6; OCHA 5/7; PCHR 5/8)
Monday, May 5, 2008