August 30, 2006

As operations in Gaza City continue, IDF kills 5 armed Palestinians and 2 bystanders, wounds 3 (all bystanders) in air strikes and armed clashes. The IDF announces it has discovered a large tunnel under the Gaza-Israel border nr. Qarni crossing. In the West Bank, the IDF raids the home of Change and Reform PC mbr. Ibrahim Dahbur who has been in Israeli custody since 6/29; patrols in Tulkarm, conducting random ID checks; conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Hebron, nr. Jenin. An Israeli truck driver intentionally runs down a Palestinian car driving on the Nablus–Ramallah road, injuring 4 Palestinians ages 40–80; the Israeli driver is stopped by the IDF. Islamic Jihad West Bank military cmdr. Hussam Jaradat dies in an Amman hospital of injuries received in an IDF assassination attempt in Jenin on 8/23. PA Pres. Mahmud Abbas addresses a crowd of some 3,000 PA civil servants protesting in Ramallah against the PA’s failure to pay salaries, endorses their plans to start an open-ended strike on 9/2. In Gaza, 200 children of civil servants stage a similar demonstration outside Haniyeh’s offices. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights urges Gaza City municipal workers to ease their strike, which began on 8/23, and resume garbage collection, saying the continued pile up of garbage could pose a serious health risk. (NYT, PCHR, WP, WT 8/31; PCHR 9/7)