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Israelis kill Palestinian militant in West Bank raid

Posted on: Thursday, 14 July 2005, 05:19 CDT

By Nadia Sa'ad

NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli troops killed a Palestinian militant in a West Bank raid on Thursday, stepping up operations after a suicide bombing that shook Israel as it prepares to pull out from some occupied territory next month.

The raid was followed by militant rocket fire from Gaza that injured no one. The violence further frayed a ceasefire declared by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at a February summit.

A serious resurgence of bloodshed could disrupt Israel's planned pullout from Gaza and part of the West Bank, its first evacuation of settlers from territory captured in the 1967 Middle East war and which Palestinians want for a state.

Troops killed Mohammed al-Asi, a local commander for both the Islamic Jihad and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades groups in Nablus, in an exchange of fire with gunmen after surrounding a building and calling on militants inside to surrender.

"They saw two suspects trying to jump over a wall. One of them went inside the building and the other approached them. As he approached they shouted for him to stop, he ran toward them and they fired at him," said army spokesman Major Sharon Asman.

The other militant, also from Islamic Jihad, was arrested after surrendering along with two other people who were in the building, a Palestinian man and a British woman, the army said.

They said they did not know if the woman -- who they described as a pro-Palestinian activist -- had been harbouring the two wanted men or whether they were in the house by chance.

Shortly afterwards, Islamic Jihad gunmen in Gaza fired two rockets into nearby Israel. No injuries were reported from what the militants said was a response to the Nablus raid.

The army resumed a security crackdown in the West Bank after an Islamic Jihad suicide bomber killed two teenage girls, two women and a soldier in the Israeli town of Netanya on Tuesday.

It was the first such attack since February and another sign that Islamic Jihad, sworn to Israel's destruction, had opted out of a "calm" declared by militant groups at Abbas's behest.

OUTSIDERS BARRED FROM GAZA SETTLEMENTS

With around a month to go until the pullout, Israel sealed off all settlements in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday to pre-empt attempts by ultra-rightist Jews to block evacuations.

Enraging settlers, Sharon signed an order closing Gaza's 21 settlements to non-residents after ultranationalists announced plans for a march next week that could have brought an influx of thousands of protesters into the Jewish enclaves.

As the indefinite entry ban took effect, cars and trucks quickly backed up at the main crossing point between Israel and Gush Katif, Gaza's largest settlement bloc. Israeli drivers, demanding to be let through, waved identity cards at police.

Overnight about 60 furious settlers used their cars to block the border point, tying down Israeli security forces. Scuffles erupted and it took police several hours to reopen the crossing.

Rightist opponents of Sharon's plan, which he has described as "disengagement" from conflict with the Palestinians, vowed to step up demonstrations in Israel against the pullout plan.

Polls show most Israelis favor the move, regarded by U.S.-led international mediators as a potential springboard to talks on a "road map" peace plan for the Middle East.

But rightists, many claiming a biblical birthright to Gaza and the occupied West Bank, say pulling out would reward militants who have spearheaded attacks during an uprising.

Palestinians fear the plan will give them only tiny, impoverished Gaza while Israel cements its hold on much bigger West Bank enclaves housing most of the 240,000 settlers. More than 3.6 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and Gaza.

Source: REUTERS

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