Palestinian age 9, 3 men, murdered by occupier in Ramallah

Three Palestinians killed, including boy, as Israel nabs wanted
militants

By Hossam Ezzedin

Agence France Presse
1 December 2003

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/59948/1/.html

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Dec 1-- Three Palestinians, including a
nine-year-old boy, were killed Monday during an Israeli army
operation in this West Bank town that led to the arrest of some 30
Hamas activists, Israeli military and Palestinian medical sources
said.

The boy, named as Mazen Hamadan, had been wounded during shooting in
the Al-Amaari refugee camp in southeast Ramallah, sources at
Ramallah hospital told AFP. Seven other Palestinians were also
wounded, the same sources added.

Israeli military sources said earlier that two Palestinians who
opened fire at soldiers during an arrest operation in Ramallah had
been shot dead.

The pair had targeted an Israeli army patrol with automatic gunfire
during a major operation designed to arrest wanted militants in the
area.

A third Palestinian who was in a house surrounded by the army was
also shot at after he lobbed a grenade toward the troops, the same
sources added.

The latest deaths bring the overall toll since the start of the
Palestinian intifada in September 2000 to 3,629 people killed,
including 2,709 Palestinians and 854 Israelis.

Palestinian security sources said several dozen military vehicles
were used in the operation, which took place in numerous areas of
the city.

Israeli army sources said some 30 people were arrested during the
operation aimed at smashing Hamas cells which were believed to have
been behind attacks that cost the lives of 82 Israelis, most of them
civilians, during the intifada.

One source also said that the troops had returned fire after coming
under attack from a group of youths who were throwing stones and
Molotov cocktails.

Military radio said that an explosives workshop had been discovered
and destroyed.

An army spokesman said military officials had informed the
Palestinian Authority that the operation was not targeting the
Ramallah headquarters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

But Arafat's key advisor, Nabil Abu Rudeina, charged that the
operation was a deliberate ploy by Israel to "undermine national
Palestinian dialogue in Cairo and disturb the launch of the Geneva
Initiative".

The unofficial peace plan was due to be unveiled in Switzerland
later Monday, as upcoming talks in Cairo aim to secure a truce from
armed Palestinian groups.

The advisor called on the United Nations to impose sanctions against
the Israelis to force them to end their "provocations and
aggressions".

Meanwhile Israeli sources also said that four wanted Palestinians
had been arrested overnight in the Nablus region of the northern
West Bank.

And Palestinian security sources said a man suspected of
collaborating with Israel was killed overnight by members of the
hardline Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the northern West Bank.

Fayez Mikbel, 38, was found dead after being shot in the village of
Maythalun, south of Jenin, by members of the armed offshoot of
Arafat's mainstream Fatah movement.

Palestinian security sources also said that a Palestinian had been
wounded in an exchange with Israeli soldiers at the entrance to
Jenin's refugee camp, while a school in the nearby village of Yamun
had been damaged by army gunfire.