Israeli tanks and helicopters blasted PA targets in the West Bank cities of Jericho and Nablus early Wednesday in what Israel claimed was "retaliation" for the killing of a Jewish settler and Palestinian small arms attacks.
Israeli helicopter gunships fired a number of missiles Wednesday morning at a base of the Palestinian presidential guards unit, Force 17, in the West Bank city of Nablus in what it called “retaliation for Tuesday’s killing of a Jewish settler, Israel Radio said.
Zohar Shuragi’s car came under fire near the settlement of Tapuach, south of the autonomous Palestinian town of Nablus, military sources said, cited by AFP and Haaretz.
They said he lost control of his bullet-ridden vehicle before crashing into a ditch.
Shirgi, who was heading towards Yafit from Israel, died instantly, they said.
A senior Israeli police official who was driving in the area also came under fire but his vehicle was not hit.
The Israeli army sealed off the sector and started combing the area in an attempt to capture the attackers, who are suspected of having sought refuge in Nablus, a source told Haaretza.
The military wing of the Fateh movement, Al Aqsa Brigades, took responsibility for the shooting.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces fired five anti-tank missiles overnight Tuesday at a post of the Palestinian general intelligence unit in Jericho, causing some damage, said the Palestinian news agency, WAFA.
The barrage allegedly came in retaliation for Palestinian small arms fire on an Israeli vehicle on the Jericho bypass road.
WAFA added that a tourist area was also shelled.
The paper also claimed that sixteen hand grenades and 19 Molotov cocktails were hurled at an Israeli army vehicle near the Egyptian border.
"In response, [army] soldiers, who were unhurt, shot back," said army spokesman.
Palestinian sources reported that eight people were injured, five of them children, during the exchange of fire, according to the paper.
Since the September 2000 eruption of the latest Palestinian uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation, AFP estimates that Palestinians have killed 128 Israelis with weapons ranging from stones and knives to machineguns and car bombs. Israeli military sources have reported well over 600 injuries to Israelis of Jewish descent.
In the same time period, according to AFP, Israeli soldiers and armed Jewish settlers have killed 13 Arab Israelis and 540 Palestinians with weapons ranging from machineguns and tanks to US-made Apache helicopter gunships and F-16s.
According to an Amnesty International report issued early this year, nearly 100 of the Palestinians killed were children. In addition, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has reported over 14,000 Palestinians wounded.
Jewish author Noam Chomsky, who according to a New York Times Book Review article is “arguably the most important intellectual alive,” has been quoted as saying: “State terrorism is an extreme form of terrorism, generally much worse than individual terrorism because it has the resources of a state behind it.” - Albawaba.com
