June 12, 2006

The IDF sends undercover units into Tulkarm in a car with Palestinian license plates to arrest a wanted Palestinian; later sends a 2d undercover unit into Tulkarm that is intercepted by PA security forces, withdraws after an exchange of fire, causing no injuries; sends undercover units into Jenin, who exchange fire with local gunmen, withdraw under IDF support, without making any arrests; demolishes a Palestinian home nr. Jenin next to the separation wall; patrols in Tubas, firing on residential areas; conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Nablus, Tulkarm and in Aida r.c., al-Fara‘a r.c. (firing on stone-throwing youths who confront the troops). In Rafah, at least 100 Fatah, Hamas gunmen clash, leaving 1 Hamas mbr. and 1 Palestinian bystander dead and 15 Palestinians wounded, with Hamas firing antitank weapons and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) at the local PSF headquarters. (Hamas says that Fatah gunmen fired on a Hamas funeral procession, precipitating the clash, while Fatah says that Hamas mbrs. in the procession fired first on the PSF headquarters along the route.) Soon after, 100s of Fatah-dominated PA security forces and AMB mbrs. reacting to the Gaza violence rampage through Ramallah, raiding, firing on, vandalizing, setting fire to the PC building and the cabinet headquarters in a show of force against Hamas. Later, Fatah gunmen kidnap Change and Reform PC mbr. Khalil Rabei, set fire to his Ramallah office; Rabei is freed hrs. later at Abbas’s intervention; 7 other Change and Reform PC mbrs. take refuge in the Muqata‘a under Abbas’s protection. Abbas declares a state of emergency and curfew. Inside Israel, Israeli police arrest 7 Palestinians in Shafa ‘Amr suspected in the 8/4/05 killing of an IDF soldier who boarded a bus in the town and opened fire, killing 4 Palestinians before being beaten to death. In addition, unknown assailants vandalize the Orthodox Christian Church in Majdal nr. Nazareth; the recently refurbished church, which tends to a growing Russian Orthodox population, has been threatened on several occasions by local right-wing Jews. (MM, NYT, WP, WT 6/13; PCHR 6/15)