Israeli warplanes bombed the West Bank city of Nablus shortly after an armed Palestinian attacked a Jewish settlement called Hamra, killing a soldier, as well as a woman settler and her daughter, before being killed himself.
Israeli F-16s dropped three bombs on the headquarters of the Palestinian governor of Nablus, in the West Bank, AFP. Palestinian hospital officials said 11 people, mostly security officials, were wounded in this air strike.
This new wave of violence came just hours after Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon left on a high-profile visit for Washington in a bid to further isolate Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, whom he kept in isolation in the West Bank town of Ramallah for two over months.
The armed Palestinian opened fired with an automatic weapon on a group of soldiers and then on a group of settlers in the greenhouse area of the settlement, located in the Jordan Valley.
Three Israelis – two settlers and a soldier -- died of their wounds, while another three people, were also wounded, Israeli media reports said. According to Haaretz, the settlement had received a warning of a possible infiltration 10 minutes prior to the first encounter with the attacker.
The settlement's security guard began closing the settlement gates, when shots were fired at him from the direction of the settlement's green- houses. An eye-witness said that a gas container near one of the houses was hit by bullets and exploded, and that the residents of the house were rescued under fire.
The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas claimed responsibility for Hamra operation.
The Israeli government said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was ultimately to blame for the attack.
Meanwhile, medical sources and witnesses said a 16-year-old Palestinian was also shot and killed Wednesday by occupation troops in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah.
Before the Hamra attack, the Israeli army said it had captured a major weapons hauls and averted a potential suicide bombing.
Israeli forces had arrested a Palestinian wearing a belt of explosives at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Police said the would-be bomber, nabbed on a bus going from Jerusalem to the settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim, put up a fight but was arrested without being able to detonate the device. He was later identified as Nidal Surakji of Nablus, cousin of an assassinated Hamas West Bank military wing commander.
A short time later, the Israeli army said it intercepted a truck near Nablus carrying eight Qassam 2 rockets with ranges of up to 10 kilometres in its first discovery of such long-range missiles in the West Bank. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
