Palestinian militant dies in Jericho raid

Israeli troops riding on jeeps and a tank raided the biblical town of Jericho today for the first time in months, killing a Palestinian militant, the army and Palestinian sources said. The fighting forced many residents to stay inside at the start of the four-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

Military sources said troops had entered the town for a small, pinpoint operation to arrest fugitives who were planning an attack.

The sources said troops had surrounded a house where an unknown number of militants were hiding. The army came under fire several times prompting soldiers to open fire. Two militants were wounded and taken to hospital. An armed Palestinian was killed, they said.

The army also reported four arrests before pulling out of the town.

Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat, a resident of Jericho, said the fighting had been intense. “The shooting is out of hand. We are confined to our homes,” he said early in the day. Erekat said a total of seven people had been wounded, and three houses had been demolished.

Israel’s raid came as the government claimed growing international support for its position in an upcoming international court case looking at the legality of a West Bank barrier it is building.

By midmorning, Jericho had quietened down, witnesses said, but the army said it was still searching the home where the militants had holed up.

Jericho has been almost untouched by three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, and most army arrests there are conducted without a shot being fired.

Palestinian officials identified the dead militant as Shadi Jaradat, a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades from the city of Jenin.

The brigades, a violent group loosely linked to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction, had claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing last Thursday that killed 11 people in Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Israel said about 30 countries had voiced support for Israel in the upcoming case on the West Bank separation barrier at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands.

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 UN General Assembly has sent the case to the court for an advisory opinion on the barrier’s legality. Israel has said the matter should be addressed through negotiations, not in an international forum.

The United States and European Union were among those to support the Israeli position, said Alan Baker, the Foreign Ministry’s legal adviser.

“Sending this type of thing to the court is asking the court to dabble in a political issue that is already being dealt with,” Baker said. “If the court takes this on … then there is no end to what political disputes could reach the court, and this could politicise the court.”

Baker said there is a “very slight” chance that the powerful opposition to the case might persuade the 15-judge panel at the court to dismiss the case.

As part of its public-relations campaign to build support for its case, the Foreign Ministry posted on its official Web site graphic video footage from last Thursday’s bombing. The footage shows the bloody aftermath of the bombing accompanied by voices of rescue workers discussing the scene.