A 10-year-old Palestinian child was shot dead by an Israeli armoured vehicle which opened fire on him with a heavy machine-gun in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the head of the hospital told AFP.
The child was named as Abd A Salam Sumrin by Ramallah hospital director Hosni Atari, who said he had been shot through the chest by a heavy machine-gun bullet fired by a tank Thursday. The boy's mother, Wafiqa, said her husband had sent him to a nearby grocery to buy cigarettes. She said five minutes after her son left the house, someone came to tell her he had been shot.
Palestinian police said there were no clashes reported in the area at the time, and said witnesses had said it was an armoured personnel carrier which fired on the child. The police said an Israeli army curfew was in place at the time, but said there appeared to be no other motive for the shooting.
Bombing attack
The Islamic Jihad group has claimed responsibility for Wednesday's bombing attack in Israel. In a leaflet, the group said the attack was to observe the 20th anniversary for Sabra and Shatila massacre. On September 16, 1982 Christian militiamen butchered some 2000 Palestinian civilians in Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in the worst atrocity of Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
The Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up, killing himself and an Israeli police officer. The blast on Wednesday was the first time since August 4 that a suicide bomber has blown himself up inside Israel.
The Israeli police spokesman said the bomber was apparently planning to board a bus heading further into Israel from Umm el-Fahm, which lies only 10 kilometres from the West Bank town of Jenin.
Israeli security forces had been on high alert throughout the day, after warnings that a suicide bomber was trying to cross the border between Israel and the West Bank.
Israel's government spokesman Avi Pazner laid the blame on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's administration for its failure to crack down on "extremists."
"This is the result of the complete inaction of the Palestinian Authority which is doing absolutely nothing to stop terrorist organizations sending their men to blow themselves up in Israel," he told AFP.
But the Palestinians said ultimate blame lay in Israel's policy of reoccupying the West Bank. "We ask Israel to withdrawal immediately from our territory and return to talks. Israeli aggression paved the way for this incident, which does not help the peace process," said Arafat's aide, Nabil Abu Rudeina.
The White House called the bombing "one step backward" but spokesman Ari Fleischer reaffirmed the U.S. goal of Palestinian statehood. He said President Bush hoped "we can get back to the path of slow, quiet progress in the Middle East."
In an interview with the U.S. newspaper Boston Globe published on Wednesday before the attack, the Palestinian head of West Bank Preventive Security, Zuhair al-Manasra said he thought the violence "has not been the proper approach by our side."
"These groups did things that neither our moral values nor our political aims can justify. What can possibly justify bombing a university or a cafe? Nothing," he said.
In Nablus overnight, Israeli forces arrested a wanted Palestinian activist. A curfew has been in force in the city for the past 10 days.
Members of the Fatah military wing in Nablus shot dead Wednesday a young Palestinian man suspected to collaborating with Israel. The body of Ashraf al-Awana, 28, was discovered in an olive grove. He had been shot in the chest and his body mutilated.
Houses demolished
The Israeli army demolished early Thursday two houses belonging to suicide bombers in Abu Dis, near Jerusalem.
The houses belong to the families of two Hamas suicide bombers who carried out an attack in Jerusalem last December, in which 10 Israelis were killed.
The two bombers, Nabil Halbiyeh and Osama Ayed Bahar, both residents of Abu Dis, dosed their bombs with poisonous insecticides, the Israeli media reported. Along with the two suicide bombers, a third bomb, set off in a car, went off in the same area.
Palestinian sources reported Wednesday that the Israeli army demolished 34 apartments that were being constructed in the village of Ein Sinia, north of Ramallah. According to the sources, the housing project, which belongs to the Palestinian Workers' Association, was planned to provide 250 housing units for low-income Palestinian families. The sources added that Israeli troops ordered the area evacuated and then demolished the duldings. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
