MIDDLE EAST: Israeli soldiers kill three Palestianians in West Bank raids against militants, residents said

Israeli soldiers killed three Palestinians in raids against militants in the occupied West Bank on Friday (October 27), local residents said. A house in northern Gaza was also destroyed in a night airstrike. Two of the Palestinians were shot dead in al-Fara refugee camp, near the city of Jenin, and residents, identifying them as civilians, said one of them had been throwing rocks at Israeli troops. An Israeli army spokesman said the men, one carrying a gun and the other an axe, were within a group of people moving towards the force in a threatening manner. He said the gunman was killed and the other man was wounded in the leg and taken to an Israeli hospital for treatment. In another incident, in the village of Yamoun, west of Jenin, soldiers killed a man who had climbed onto the roof of his home to watch the Israeli raid, residents said. An army spokesman said that soldiers fired at several gunmen and hit at least two of them, the spokesman said. The Israeli army carries out frequent raids against militants in the West Bank and the Jenin area is one of their strongholds. Earlier on Friday an Israeli airstrike destroyed a house in Jabalya refugee camp, which the army said was used as a weaponry storehouse. The attack came after the army warned residents to stay away from the area. Witnesses said that the owner of the house was phoned five minutes before the attack, and that he fled with his family. Emergency services were quickly on the scene, but there were no reports of any injuries. Israel had launched an offensive on Gaza following the kidnapping of one of its soldiers by Palestinian militants in June. At least 250 Palestinians have been killed during the offensive, abound half of them civilians. In the West Bank Israel continues the construction of a barrier described by Israel as a security measure to stop suicide bombers from infiltrating its cities. The designated 670 km (400 miles)-long barrier cuts into Palestinian territories. Hundreds of protesters, including Palestinians, Israeli and foreign peace activists, gathered in a construction site of the barrier near the village of Beilin to demonstrate against the erection of the barrier in the area. Protesters claim the route of the barrier cuts the Palestinian villagers off from their fields. Israeli border policemen declared the area a closed military zone when the protesters approached the construction site. Clashes between the troops and the protesters erupted during the demonstration. Two protesters and two policemen were reported wounded. The border police detained four protesters. About a third of the network of razor wire-tipped fences and towering concrete walls has been completed and Israeli officials say the project has already stopped several suicide attacks. Palestinians say it is a move a move to seize land that Israel has occupied since the 1967 Middle East war and will deny them the viable state they want in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

ITN Source | October 28, 2006

Tags:. .treatment. .towards. .witnesses. .northern. .earlier