Mideast - AFP
At least four Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Jenin violence
Date: Sat, Apr 24, 2004
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli troops killed at least four Palestinians in two separate incidents in and near Jenin, as violence rocked the northern West Bank, army and Palestinian sources said.
Israeli special forces disguised as Palestinians shot dead three members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in their car in Jenin, security sources said, but the army said they had fired from a building on troops coming to arrest them.
An Israeli spokeswoman said the three "terrorists were preparing a suicide attack in Israel."
Palestinian sources named them as Kamal Tubassi, 30, a local leader of the group linked to Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s Fatah (news - web sites) movement, as well as Said Hardan, 25, and Mohammed Azuka, 20.
The sources said a Palestinian photographer working for an international agency was also badly wounded in the shooting.
Israeli troops later shot dead another two Palestinian militants while attempting to arrest them near Jenin, an army source said. A Palestinian official said one of them was only seriously wounded.
"Soldiers were trying to arrest near Jenin two wanted Palestinian activists, who tried to flee, forcing the soldiers to fire warning shots, then to aim at them and kill them," the source said.
"Our forces are now checking to see if their bodies are booby-trapped."
But the Palestinian source said that while Hosni Dararna, 22, was killed, Iyad Dararna, 20, was only badly wounded when troops fired on them in Al-Shuhada.
An AFP correspondent earlier saw Israeli soldiers enter the village aboard some 15 jeeps and armoured vehicles.
Troops disguised as Palestinians surrounded a cafe and shooting broke out.
The cafe owner said the Israelis fired at two Palestinians almost immediately after calling on them to surrender.
Meanwhile the Martyrs Brigades said militants had killed a Palestinian who was suspected of "collaborating" with Israel. The group said in a statement that the man was shot near his home in the West Bank.
Israeli border guard commander David Tzur told a television audience Saturday that the Jewish state had infiltrated agents into the radical Islamic militant movement Hamas.
"I am not going to give details on the subject, but in principle it is effectively the case," he said.
The deaths brought to at least 3,942 the number of people killed since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000, including at least 2,973 Palestinians and 899 Israelis.
In other incidents, three Palestinian schoolboys were wounded by Israeli fire during clashes with troops in the town of Yabad, west of Jenin, a Palestinian security source said.
The soldiers had fired on the school, the source said.
In the same area troops captured a member of the armed wing of the radical Islamist group Hamas, who had been wounded the day before, in an olive grove in the village of Talluza, northeast of Nablus, the source added.
A Palestinian was killed in Talluza Friday in an Israeli operation aimed at arresting wanted militants.
The family of Yasser Abu Leimun, 32, said he was a schoolteacher with no political affiliations and was killed by a stray bullet.
The army claimed he was part of a group of four wanted militants and a member of Hamas.
SOURCE
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