An Israeli soldier was shot dead overnight by Palestine gunfire near a village in the West Bank city of Nablus, and another Israeli female soldier was lightly injured in Jerusalem on Monday.
Haaretz newspaper reported that the killing of 23-year-old Ya'akov Krenchel, was in retaliation for the kidnapping of six members of the Palestinian presidential guards unit, Force 17, in Ramallah on Sunday.
The soldier was killed in a firefight with Palestinian gunmen in the village of Salem near Nablus, said reports.
Krenchel, who was from Nahariya, was hit in the head during exchanges of fire between soldiers and Palestinians near an Israeli army post between the Jewish settlements of Itamar and Elon Moreh, said Haaretz.
An ambulance arrived shortly afterwards to take away the body while the Israeli army imposed a curfew, said AFP.
On Monday morning, a female Israeli soldier was lightly injured in Jerusalem when a Palestinian man hit her over the head with an iron bar, and snatched her M16 semi-automatic rifle on Pierre Kennig Street, in a residential area of Jerusalem, said the Israeli paper.
The Israeli army said there had been six other exchanges of fire late Sunday, with no injuries reported.
The heaviest shooting had been around Bethlehem where the military position guarding Rachel's Tomb came under machinegun fire, a military source told Haaretz.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority issued a warning to Israel Sunday night that it has "crossed a red line" by entering Area A (under Palestinian control), and kidnapping six Palestinians.
Israeli security sources said the Palestinians may respond to the kidnapping by attempting to kidnap Israeli soldiers, said Haaretz.
The head of the PA's preventative security apparatus in the West Bank, Jibril Rjoub, was quoted as saying Sunday that the kidnapping was a "clear violation of the Oslo Accords. The Israelis have crossed a red line."
But Israel's Chief of Staff, Shaul Mofaz, told Channel Two that "the Palestinians are the ones who have crossed the red lines," adding that, "the IDF will act wherever it is needed to harm the terrorists," according to the paper.
In addition to increased attempts to kidnap soldiers, Israeli sources told Haaretz that the Palestinians may also respond to the kidnapping by holding onto Israelis who enter areas under PA control, such as the teenage boy and girl who were found in Ramallah on Friday and returned unharmed to Israel.
In another development, Israeli security forces said on Sunday they had arrested eight men, a Jew and at least nine Israeli Arabs, for killing an Israeli man on the northern border last month over an arms racket, said Haaretz.
Yitzhak Kvartatz, 54, a resident and head of security at Kibbutz Manara near Kiryat Shmona, was murdered by the Jewish leader of a weapons theft cell that has operated in northern Israel for almost a year, Galilee regional police commander Yehuda Solomon told Channel Two television.
Police had initially speculated that Kvartatz was killed on March 19 in a nationalistic attack, but said Sunday that he was murdered by a Jewish contractor running a weapons stealing racket with nine of his Israeli Arab laborers.
The Manara armory was raided at the time of Kvartatz's death, and emptied of dozens of weapons.
Head of northern district police Alik Ron told reporters that a large sum of foreign currency was found hidden in the home of the contractor, and that the weapons stolen from Kibbutz Manara had probably been shipped to Palestinian territories, according to Haaretz Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
