WEST BANK: Israeli troops raid a West Bank hospital to arrest wounded gunmen

Israeli troops raided a hospital in the West Bank on Friday (November 3) in order to arrest Palestinian militants who were admitted in it. Armoured vehicles surrounded the hospital while soldiers walked in to find wanted militants. The troops arrested two militants of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, witnesses said. They added that one of the gunmen was wounded during a gunfire with Israeli soldiers earlier on the day and was out of surgery minutes before his arrest. Earlier on Friday, Israeli troops raided various West Bank towns to arrest Palestinian militants. Israeli troops raided the Balata refugee camp near the town of Nablus before dawn. The army said the troops identified two militants preparing a car bomb to be used against Israel and opened fire at them. Palestinian medical sources said a 15-year-old youth was killed, and identified him as the brother of a militant leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group linked to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement. Later the car, which the army said carried explosives and gas tanks, was detonated in a controlled manner by the army. Also in the West Bank town of Bethlehem a 17-year-old boy was shot and left brain-dead after Israeli troops fired on teenagers throwing stones and molotov cocktails, witnesses and doctors said. Earlier Israeli troops backed by bulldozers surrounded a house of an Islamic Jihad militant and threw grenades and tear gas to force the house's resident to leave. The militant, Tha'er Hassan, was inside the house when troops surrounded it and called him to surrender. The army called the residents to leave before bulldozers demolished a house belonged to a member of the Islamic Jihad militant group. Near Bethlehem, farmers who tried to enter Jerusalem with their Olive products scuffled with Israeli security forces. During the night, the Israeli army also arrested the Palestinian Housing Minister Abed El-Rahman Zeedan in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The army said he was detained for questioning but Palestinians said it is an illegal and outraging act aimed to sabotage their efforts to form a unity government.

ITN Source | November 4, 2006

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