ISRAELI troops killed four Palestinian gunmen infiltrating Israel from the Gaza Strip on Monday, as the army arrested at least 12 Palestinians in a new wave of security sweeps through the West Bank.
Israeli tanks also staged an incursion into the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem, occupying the northern and eastern sectors of the town and an adjacent refugee camp, witnesses said.
Meanwhile, Israel tanks and troops remained stationed around Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity for the 35th day even as Palestinian officials reported a deal on removing the last flashpoint in Israel’s West Bank offensive.
In two separate incidents, the army reported shooting dead militants who tried breaking through Israel’s cordon of the volatile Gaza Strip.
In one incident, two gunmen succeeded and were killed after they slipped into southern Israel near the village of Kissufim, located near the Gaza Strip border. Palestinian sources identified them as Hazen al-Wadya (22) and Mahrus al-Bahtiti (20) both members of the armed wing of the radical Palestinian movement Islamic Jihad.
For its part, the army said a gunbattle in the Kissufim area had lasted for more than four hours and that two soldiers were wounded, one of them seriously, as well as the two Palestinians being killed.
Troops also shot dead two Palestinians who broke through an Israeli military checkpoint at the northern crossing of Karni, an army source said.
One of the two gunmen was wearing an explosives belt, and was likely preparing to stage a suicide attack in an Israeli city, the army said.
”The Israeli soldiers prevented an attempt by terrorists to infiltrate into Israel,” the army said in a statement.
Palestinian officials identified the two Palestinians killed at Karni as Sohel Ziada (27) and Mazen Abu Razek (23) saying they were members of the armed wing of the Islamic group Hamas.
Israel maintains a heavy military presence inside the Gaza Strip, controlling major checkpoints and protecting entrances into Israeli settlements in the area.
But Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has so far ruled out staging an all-out incursion into the region similar to the one launched in the West Bank on March 29.
The army has since pulled out of most West Bank towns, although it did stage another incursion into Tulkarem on Monday. Ten tanks occupied the northern and eastern sectors as well as an adjacent refugee camp, witnesses said. Gunfire was reported, but there was no initial information on casualties or arrests.
The army also conducted a wave of arrests around the central West Bank towns of Bethlehem and Ramallah, as it pressed on with a security clampdown aimed at preventing a resumption of Palestinian attacks on Israel.
The army arrested nine Palestinians after conducting house-to-house searches overnight in the Deheisha refugee camp on the western outskirts of Bethlehem, before withdrawing from the area.
Two of the Palestinians had featured on Israel’s wanted list, and the other seven were taken in for questioning, the army said. The Israelis also arrested three Palestinians, including two suspected members of Hamas, during security sweeps in Burka and the Kalandia refugee camp near Bethlehem.
Separately, the army has discovered classified military documents in the offices of the Palestinian head of preventive security for the West Bank, Colonel Jibril Rajub, the Yediot Aharonot daily reported Monday.
During a raid of Rajub’s headquarters in Betunya, near Ramallah on the West Bank, the army discovered documents with personal details of senior Israeli military officials, including their home addresses, the newspaper reported, citing military sources. – Sapa-AFP