Israeli police restricted access to prayers at annexed east Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque, as security forces went on high alert a day after a Palestinian suicide bombing near Tel Aviv.
Israel banned access to the disputed site to Muslim males under 40 following intelligence reports that Palestinian groups were planning a repeat of incidents which broke out on October 4, police sources said Friday.
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli tanks staged early Friday a brief incursion into autonomous Palestinian territory near the northern town of Beit Hanoun. The tanks fired five shells and opened heavy machine-gun fire, damaging several houses but causing no injuries, Palestinian security sources said.
However, the national Resistance Brigades, military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, issued a statement saying its members ambushed two cars carrying Jewish settlers in the area, AFP reported.
"Our military group ambushed two settler taxis near Nitzanit, opened fire and threw hand grenades, injuring one settler," the statement said, adding that an Israeli helicopter evacuated the wounded.
An attack on an Israeli military target was averted Friday after Israeli troops, spotting two Palestinians trying to plant a bomb next to the Gaza Strip settlement of Rafah Yam, opened fire in the direction of the two who then fled, Israel Radio reported.
Also Friday, Palestinians threw a grenade at an Israeli outpost near Rafah and fired shots at workers in the northern Gaza Strip. No injuries were reported in either of the incidents.
Palestinians said on Friday that a 15-year-old boy from Khan Yunis died of wounds he sustained in the Israeli raid there on Monday, bringing the death toll from the operation up to 17. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
