Israeli troops kill armed Palestinians in Rafah raid

Ravi Nessman,Ap
Monday 02 February 2004 01:00 GMT
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Israeli soldiers operating in the town of Rafah today shot dead four armed Palestinians including a leader of the militant Islamic Jihad group, the army said.

Militants threw a grenade and shot at troops who attempted in a night operation to arrest the militia leader at his home, the army spokesman said. One soldier was lightly injured in the operation. Israeli forces responded with fire, killing three of the armed men, the army said.

Palestinian comment was not immediately available because of a Muslim holiday but Israeli radios reported that Palestinian rescue forces in the area said four Palestinians were killed.

The operation came following comments by Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz Sunday that the heads of violent Islamic groups are targets for assassination. His remarks raised the possibility of further escalation in Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed.

Mofaz issued the threat in response to a declaration by the spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, that Hamas is making an all-out effort to kidnap Israeli soldiers.

"The statements of Yassin just emphasize the need to strike the heads of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad," Mofaz told the weekly meeting of the Israeli Cabinet, according to an Israeli official who attended the meeting.

The statements by Mofaz and Yassin threaten to inflame an already tense situation. In more than three years of violence, 2,638 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 919 on the Israeli side.

Last week, Israel killed eight Palestinians in a shootout in Gaza City, while a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 11 people in Jerusalem. Hamas took responsibility, a day after a claim from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, loosely linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.

Hamas officials did not immediately react to Mofaz's comments.

During the conflict, Israel has carried out many pinpoint attacks aimed at leaders from the Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups — often prompting a violent response. In September, Yassin narrowly escaped an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip.

But Israel has greatly reduced the number of targeted killings in recent months. Last month, Mofaz's deputy, Zeev Boim, retracted comments calling for Yassin's assassination, saying later that no decision had been made.

Hamas, responsible for dozens of suicide bombings over the last three years, also appeared to have scaled back its activities, until a Hamas female suicide bomber killed four Israelis at a Gaza-Israel checkpoint on Jan. 14.

Yassin called for the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers a day after Israel released 400 Palestinian prisoners as part of an Israeli exchange with the Lebanese Hezbollah for a businessman and the bodies of three soldiers.

Meanwhile, Israel said about 30 countries have voiced supported for its position in the upcoming case on the West Bank barrier at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands. Israel maintains the world court is not the proper forum for the issue.

Israel says the barrier is needed to protect against suicide bombers, while the Palestinians say the structure, which dips deep into the West Bank in some parts, amounts to seizure of their land.

With Palestinian backing, the U.N. General Assembly has sent the case to the court for an advisory opinion. Israel has said the matter should be addressed through negotiations.

The expansive complex of trenches, fences, walls and razor wire, has become one of the most contentious issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and both sides see the upcoming court hearing as an important battleground for determining the project's fate.

The court is to begin hearings on the barrier project on 23 February.

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