Israel’s security forces were on high alert Saturday night along the border with the West Bank following warnings that a Palestinian infiltrated into Israel. Security was stepped up at the entrances to Hadera (about 50 kilometers north of Tel Aviv), Afula in the north of the country and other towns in the central Israel, reports said.
Israeli officials said that five Palestinians who planned to carry out suicide bombing attacks have been arrested in the West Bank since Thursday. Meanwhile, Israeli policemen and Palestinians exchanged fire Saturday evening in the seam line area near Umm al Fahm. No injuries were reported.
Earlier, a Palestinian teenager was wounded by Israeli fire as the army moved into more West Bank villages. Dazir Hantouli, 13, was moderately wounded after being hit by Israeli fire when troops entered the town of Silat al-Dhahr in the northern West Bank, the town's mayor Rajeb Abu Diak told AFP.
At least eight Israeli armored-personnel carriers and jeeps rolled into the town, which lies some 17 kilometers south of Jenin, when a group of Palestinian youths began hurling rocks at them, Abu Diak said. The army fired at the stone throwers moderately injuring Hantouli in the legs, he said.
Troops also imposed a curfew on the town, Abu Diak said.
Additionally, the Israeli army entered Saturday the village of Bal'a close to the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem and imposed a curfew, witnesses said. Four tanks and a number of jeeps entered the town which lies some five kilometers east of Tulkarem and surrounded three mosques, ordering the men inside to come out and to undress, they said.
The people were later sent home without any arrests being made, but troops remained in the town, they added.
Earlier in the day, Israeli police arrested one man as scuffles broke out with demonstrators protesting the closure of the Palestinian al-Qods University in occupied east Jerusalem, protestors said. Around 60 people turned up to demonstrate against last week's closure of the university's administrative offices by Israel, who claimed they were being illegally used as the Jerusalem representation of the Palestinian Authority. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
