Two Israeli settlers were shot dead early Monday, and two others wounded, in a Palestinian ambush on their car on the Ramallah-Nablus road, near the West Bank settlement of Eli. This was the fifth Palestinian attack on Israeli targets since early Sunday, which have left 13 Israeli residents dead and nearly 100 others injured.
The Israeli army confirmed the two killed in Monday ambush were a married couple and the two other wounded were their children. Israeli army sources said that the Palestinian assailants have escaped the scene of the attack and the army was carrying out an extensive search for them.
On the Palestinian side, witnesses said Israeli forces raided the West Bank village of Burqa early on Monday to hunt for suspected activists. Two Palestinian men were shot dead in the battle, one of them a wanted operative, medical sources said. The two died when the Israelis attacked a house in Burka. Four other Palestinians in the building were arrested by the troops, the sources said.
The Palestinian news agency, Wafa said the Israeli forces "assassinated" Muhammad Rida Faru'niyah, 38, and Khalid Abd-al-Aziz Mahmud Sayf, 43, from the Preventive Security Forces. Eyewitnesses said the occupation forces besieged the house of Faru'niyah with several tanks. The Israeli forces asked citizens living close to the house to call its owner. When he looked through the window, they shot him in the head.
The witnesses said that the occupation forces broke into the house afterwards and liquidated Sayf by shooting him at a close range.
Meanwhile, Israel responded to the attacks by further restricting Palestinian travel around most West Bank cities. "Due to the last wave of attacks...it was decided to completely restrict Palestinian movement in the areas of Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarem, Qalqilya and Ramallah, with the exception of medical and humanitarian cases," the army said in a statement.
In Gaza Strip, some 25 tanks took up positions on the main north-south road, cutting off the southern town of Rafah and an adjacent refugee camp from the rest of the Strip. The army said it imposed the blockade to prevent attacks on Israelis.
In another development, the Israeli army pressed ahead with its plan to expel relatives of Palestinian bombers, ordering a third Palestinian banished from the West Bank, while two others set to be deported appealed their case before a military court.
The Israeli army ordered Sunday the expulsion of a Palestinian woman, Intissar Ajuri, 34, from the Askar refugee camp near Nablus, to Gaza Strip, legal sources said. Her brother Kifah Adjuri, 28, also from Askar, and Abdel Nasser Assidi, 34, from the village of Tel, are appealing their expulsion orders to a military tribunal and rulings are expected in the coming days. Intissar is inclined to submit an appeal Monday, the sources said, according to AFP.
Israeli police said two women from the Philippines working in Israel were among the dead in Sunday bus bombing, as were two people from the Jewish state's minority Druze community. (Albawaba.com)
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