Israel kills 2 gunmen, teen in W.Bank offensive

By Atef Sa’ad

NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) – Israeli forces killed two
Palestinian gunmen and a teenager in the occupied West Bank on
Friday, pressing ahead with raids against militants despite a
halt to cross-border rocket salvoes from the Gaza Strip.

The week-long wave of violence has cast a shadow over the
latest round of Palestinian municipal elections, frayed a
seven-month-old ceasefire and deflated hopes that Israel’s Gaza
pullout might open the way for a revival of peacemaking.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction, said two fighters died in an
army raid on Balata refugee camp in Nablus. Troops later shot
dead a 13-year-old stone-thrower in nearby Askar camp,
witnesses said.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said Palestinians fired at
troops who swooped on the camps before dawn to arrest
militants.

“The soldiers shot back, and several (gunmen) were hit. One
soldier was slightly wounded. In all, 11 terrorists were
detained,” the spokeswoman said. She had no word on the dead
youth but said troops and gunmen also exchanged fire in Askar.

On Thursday, Israeli troops shot dead three gunmen in West
Bank raids. Hundreds of suspected militants have been detained
by Israeli forces in sweeps in the territory over the past
week.

The rocket fire that led to the Israeli offensive, which
has included artillery and missile attacks in the Gaza Strip,
abated on Tuesday in response to pleas from the Palestinian
public for calm to enable reconstruction after 38 years of
occupation.

But Israel has kept up the heat. “We strongly condemn this
continued Israeli escalation that will undermine the cessation
of violence,” Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said.

Around 4,000 children gathered on Friday near the former
Jewish settlement of Netzarim in Gaza to commemorate the
killing of two Palestinian boys in the area near the start of a
2000 uprising. Militant group Islamic Jihad organized the
rally.

PALESTINIAN ELECTIONS

The latest bloodshed came hours after Palestinians finished
voting in a third round of local elections in the West Bank
widely seen as a test of political clout for the militant Hamas
group ahead of a parliamentary ballot in January.

Fatah won control of 65 of the 104 municipal councils up
for grabs compared with 22 for Hamas and 17 percent for other
factions, said Firas Yaghi, executive director of the Higher
Commission for Local Elections. Turnout was 85 percent.

Hamas said the preliminary figures did not reflect its
grassroots popularity, noting that its candidates did not run
in some districts for fear of arrest by Israel.

The vote — final official figures for which are due on
Saturday — could signal a strong showing for Hamas in the
coming legislative vote. Hamas, sworn to Israel’s destruction,
boycotted the only previous parliamentary ballot in 1996.

Thursday’s ballot, part of elections for more than 1,000
West Bank council seats, was the first Palestinian vote since
Israel completed its Gaza pullout on September 12.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has vowed Israel will keep West
Bank settlement blocs much larger than its former Gaza
enclaves.

Hamas, the driving force behind suicide bombings against
Israelis during five years of a Palestinian uprising before it
agreed to a truce in February at Abbas’s behest, did well in
the two earlier phases of municipal voting.

Its popularity is underpinned not only by its fight against
Israel but its charity network and corruption-free image.

The prospect of a key role for Hamas in Palestinian
politics has caused concern in Israel and abroad due to the
group’s refusal to disarm under a U.S.-backed peace “road map.”
The plan envisages a viable Palestinian state alongside a
secure Israel.

Sharon had said Israel would not facilitate voting in the
parliamentary ballot in the West Bank, where the army has a
network of roadblocks, if Hamas ran without first disarming.
Palestinians demand that Israel not interfere in their
politics.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah and
Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Writing by Jeffrey Heller in
Jerusalem)