WEST BANK: Israeli troops kill Palestinian militant in raid on a house in Bethlehem

Israeli troops raiding the occupied West Bank shot and killed a Palestinian local leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group early on Saturday (November 4). Troops backed by bulldozers raided the town of Bethlehem on Friday (November 3) and surrounded the house where the 27-year-old militant was staying. Bulldozers destroyed the outside walls of the apartment building, calling the man to surrender. Later an army bulldozer demolished the house. The Israeli army said it killed the man after an exchange of fire. The army frequently conducts raids on Palestinian towns in the West Bank to arrest Palestinian militants. Later, thousands of Palestinians, including gunmen of the Islamic Jihad militant group, marched throughout the streets of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank on Saturday (November 4) in a funeral procession for the group's leader. The funeral was carried throughout the streets of Jesus' birth town, after Muslim worshippers held a prayer outside a central mosque. Two bodies, one of the militant and another one of a 15-year-old teenager were carried through the streets. The man, a local leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group, was later brought to burial in Bethlehem. The raid came as Israel is pressing on with one of its biggest operations in the Gaza Strip since pulling out of the territory a year ago. The operation launched in late June came following the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants in a cross-border raid from Gaza. Around 30 Palestinians, about half of them are civilians, have been killed in an intensified offensive the army launched in northern Gaza four days ago. 17 Palestinians were killed on Friday, in one of the bloodiest days since Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005.

ITN Source | November 4, 2006

Tags:. .marched. .early. .building. .west. .saturday