Pupils hurt in West Bank school yard explosion

FIVE pupils were injured yesterday in an explosion at a Palestinian school in the West Bank.

Almost all the 380 students were in class at the time, headmaster Yousef Abed Rabbo said. He blamed militant Israelis for the blast.

Witnesses at the Ziff secondary school in Hebron said police later fired shots at an object, triggering three explosions.

But police spokesman Rafi Yaffe could not confirm the claims that officers blew up any other devices. Rabbo said the blast went off near a water cooler in the schoolyard.

In March, a bomb went off in another Palestinian school in east Jerusalem, injuring a teacher and four children. Jewish militants claimed responsibility for that attack.

Earlier yesterday Israeli tanks and troops swept through the outskirts of a city in the southern Gaza Strip, destroying metal workshops suspected of being arms factories and arresting 23 Palestinians.

Palestinian witnesses and security sources said about 30 tanks and armoured vehicles penetrated about one mile into the city of Khan Younis.

The army, which has stepped up raids in Gaza while enforcing curfews in West Bank cities, said its forces had demolished nine foundries used to manufacture makeshift bombs, rockets and ammunition, and detained 23 people linked to militant groups.

“You have to know that anyone who provides assistance or co-operates with these terrorists in any way will pay a dear price,” it said in a leaflet distributed by troops.

The leaflet blamed the tough conditions in Gaza on “terrorist attacks” launched from the area.

The owners of the workshops denied the buildings had secretly been used to make weapons.

“They came in tanks and bulldozers, they called to us though megaphones to come out of the house and then they threw explosives into it and destroyed it,” said 50-year-old Ramez al-Fara, standing by his demolished tractor repair workshop.

Another of the workshop owners, Mahmoud al-Astal, told Reuters his foundry “had nothing to do with acts of violence.”

There were no immediate reports of casualties in the raid.

At least 1,542 Palestinians and 591 Israelis have been killed in violence since the uprising began in September 2000, shortly after talks for a final peace treaty stalled.

The latest victim of the conflict was an Egyptian who was shot dead by troops near a Gaza checkpoint on Monday his funeral was scheduled for late yesterday.

The army said the man was killed after he threw a hand grenade out of a car window at troops guarding a military checkpoint.