Three Israeli tanks opened fire Sunday evening on Beit Jala Hospital in the Bethlehem area in the West Bank, killing a citizen and seriously wounding an anesthetist.
The Palestinian satellite channel’s correspondent in Bethlehem, which has been under siege since Thursday, said that Issa Masalmeh, 30, was killed by shrapnel in the head, while the attack left the hospital staff member gravely injured.
Throughout Sunday, four Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in heavy clashes, the fourth straight day of Israeli attacks in and around Palestinian controlled cities across the West Bank, according to AFP.
Two Palestinians were killed in the early evening hours: an 18-year-old Palestinian girl shot dead near Jenin while picking olives with her family in an orchard, and a Palestinian officer killed in fighting in the Bethlehem area.
Earlier, there was heavy fighting in the Al Izza refugee camp in Bethlehem, where police major Mahed Hussein al Juju, aged 49, and Mahmud Suleiman Baraqaa, 32, were killed by Israeli forces, said AFP.
The deaths put the toll of a year of the Palestinian uprising at 903, including 703 Palestinians and 178 Israelis.
Palestinians, including both stone-throwing demonstrators and armed resistance fighters, have been waging a nearly 13-month uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation.
Meanwhile, mortar shells landed in the Jewish settlement of Gilo on the outskirts of Jerusalem, as shooting from the neighbouring town of Beit Jala, on the edge of Bethlehem, surged after sunset. No injuries were reported.
Members of the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) claimed responsibility for the Gilo assault in the name of their leader Abu Ali Mustapha, who was assassinated by an Israeli helicopter gunship in August.
The PFLP also claimed the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi last Wednesday, which sparked the latest round of Israeli incursions and fighting.
Sixteen Palestinians were wounded in clashes with Israeli tanks in the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem, hospital sources said.
Of the 16 wounded, three were injured seriously, including a 12-year-old boy, during the volleys of Israeli gunfire in the northern and eastern entrances of the town.
In Ramallah, two Palestinian police officers were wounded, one of them seriously.
Two soldiers were slightly wounded in Sunday's "operations" across the West Bank, an army spokeswoman said.
Four days of fighting have left at least 25 Palestinians dead. The head of the West Bank hospital service, Mussa Abu Hmeid, said 147 Palestinians had been wounded in the sudden surge of fighting.
He described the past days as the "most difficult time in the uprising," saying the 24-hour curfew in areas re-occupied by Israel meant that medical supplies and even doctors were prevented from getting through.
He added that the injuries he had treated indicated the Israelis were shooting to kill or cause serious wounds. Eight of the injured were in critical condition, he said.
Ambulance drivers said they were receiving requests from Palestinians in areas under Israeli military rule to bring them basic provisions as they could not leave their homes to buy food, said the agency.
But ambulances could not reach the Izza camp to rescue the wounded there, said the TV station – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
