The IDF intensifies Operation Violet Iron, sending tanks into Khan Yunis, clashing with Palestinian resistance members, shelling residential areas, occupying several homes as military outposts, killing 3 Palestinian militants (including local Hamas leader Yahya Marzuq [also reported as Yahya Abu Bakra]) wounding 2 civilians. The IDF fires on residential areas of Rafah; conducts arrest raids in Bayt Lahiya, Nablus. In Jenin, 3 Palestinian children are injured when they accidentally detonate a piece of unexploded IDF ordnance. An Islamic Jihad gunman fires on an IDF jeep in Baqa‘ al-Sharqiyya, wounding 2 soldiers. Palestinians fire a mortar at Kefar Darom settlement, injuring a Thai worker. (HA, IMEMC, XIN 12/29; VOI, VOP 12/29 in WNC 12/31; PCHR, WP 12/30; PCHR 12/31; PR 1/5; PCHR 1/6)
Wednesday, December 29, 2004