Palestinian killed as Israelis seize city in hunt for militants

A Palestinian was killed in the heart of Nablus yesterday as Israeli troops continued to hunt for militants in one of the biggest military operations in a West Bank city since the peak of the conflict four years ago.

Around 80 jeeps, armoured vehicles and bulldozers patrolled Nablus's old city after sealing off its centre with cement blocks and rubbish skips and enforcing a curfew which confined tens of thousands of residents to their homes.

Troops conducted a house-to-house search for wanted Palestinians including seven whose names, unusually, were broadcast by radio and TV stations briefly commandeered by the Israel Defence Forces. The military say they have uncovered four rooms containing explosives, belts and electronic devices.

In a separate incident, police said two 18-year-old Palestinian militants had confessed to stabbing to death an Israeli, Erez Lebanon, from the Jewish West Bank settlement of Bat Ayin near Hebron.

In Gaza, Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the killing, saying it was taking vengeance for what it said it was mistreatment of Palestinians by settlers living in a heavily guarded enclave in Hebron.

Local medics said the dead Palestinian in Nablus, Anan al-Teibi, 42, had been struck by a bullet in his neck while at home in the old city. A neighbour, Nashat Hijawi, said he had been hit by a passing jeep. The army said it had fired on "suspicious figures" on a rooftop, killing one and injuring another.

The Israeli military's area commander, Brig Gen Yair Golan said that 117 out of what he said were 190 would-be suicide bombers intercepted last year, and most explosives, came from Nablus and added that the operation would continue until "we achieve our mission of taking out the main terrorists from Nablus and putting the city in a situation where it does not mean a threat any more to the heart of Israel".

He said the wanted men included militants in Islamic Jihad, Tanzim (al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades), and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. But the senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, a moderate ally of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the offensive would "undermine the efforts that are being made to sustain the ceasefire with Israel."

Hamas's Ismail Haniyeh, the Palestinian Prime Minister, said the "criminal Israeli assault on Nablus" was designed to undermine current efforts to form a Palestinian coalition government.

The Israeli organisation Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said that 50,000 residents were under curfew and many sick people in Nablus's old city were inaccessible to medical help. Troops stationed outside the city's three main hospitals were also subjecting ambulances to delays for security inspections. Brigadier Golan denied the charges yesterday, saying that ambulances were only being checked at the hospitals for "a few seconds".

PHR said that the local Medical Relief Committee, which operates a field hospital inside the old city, was being prevented from responding to "residents' distress" and claimed that one of its paramedics, Allah Abu-Ramilah, was severely beaten by IDF soldiers and was detained for several hours.

It said that the patients affected included diabetics needing insulin, and patients requiring oxygen tanks and demanded that the military abide by a 2004 Israeli Supreme Court ruling that food and medical help must be made available in such circumstances.

Mohammed Attireh, 47, said all the occupants of his building in Nablus's old city were ordered to stay in his apartment while troops searched the others. He said soldiers then took the group of more than 20 people to another apartment so they could search his.

The military said it had arrested dozens of Palestinians, but said these did not yet include any of the seven men identified as fugitives in broadcasts.

Two brothers, Ahmed and Alaa Sanakra in the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, loosely linked to Fatah, said the fugitives were hiding but in communication with each other. Associated Press's local correspondent reported that some residents had complained that some of the al-Aqsa gunmen, operating in small groups, with no central authority, were intimidating the city by settling personal scores in shootings, acting as self-appointed vice squads or engaging in blackmail.