Troops destroy militant’s home
In the West Bank, troops killed a Palestinian policeman in a raid on his base in Qalqilya. Witnesses said the man was shot as he and others fled. According to Israeli military sources, he had refused orders to halt.
The overnight violence occurred hours after Palestinian security officials in Gaza said they were trying to rein in militants to forestall often devastating Israeli strikes.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s tough line on a 28-month-old Palestinian uprising for independence helped his right-wing Likud party to a resounding win in polls last month. Likud is still wrangling with potential coalition partners.
In Gaza’s al-Maghazi refugee camp, the army blew up the family home of Baha Saeed, a militant from Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction, who killed two Israelis in an attack on the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom shortly after the Palestinian uprising began in September 2000. Saeed was shot dead during that assault.
Palestinian security sources and medical officials said Kamla Saeed, Saeed’s elderly stepmother, was found dead in the debris of the home.
“She was partly deaf and apparently she was not aware of what was happening,” said Khaled Saeed, one of Kamla’s stepsons.
“Israeli troops were acting in a brutal way, they got us all out of the house so fast and in an aggressive manner, they gave no chance for us to see who was out and who was in,” he said, adding that three of his brothers were detained by troops.
The army said it was investigating reports of Kamla Saeed’s death, but military sources said the demolition took more than an hour, during which it scoured the house to make sure it was empty and kept onlookers at a safe distance.
Israel says its policy of home demolitions deters militants from carrying out suicide bombings and gun attacks. Palestinians and human rights groups denounce it as collective punishment.
In southern Gaza, witnesses and medical officials said 13 Palestinians were wounded by Israeli tank fire on Khan Younis refugee camp. Military sources said nearby Jewish settlements had come under fire but had no information on Israeli tank fire.
An Israeli army spokesman said he had no knowledge of arrests in Gaza, but that troops had arrested 15 “terror suspects” in the West Bank in sweeps which are now daily events.
Israel last conducted a big raid in the Gaza Strip on January 25, killing 13 Palestinians, in what it called a response to rocket and mortar bomb attacks on Jewish settlements in the area and on communities in southern Israel.
On Tuesday, a Palestinian official said Palestinian security forces had deployed in Gaza this week to stop militants from firing rocket and mortar bombs at Israeli targets.
“We are trying to wipe out any pretext Israel could use to escalate its aggression on the Gaza Strip,” he said.
At least 1,813 Palestinians and 698 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian revolt began in the West Bank and Gaza, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
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