Two Palestinian youths were killed Saturday during an Israel Defense Forces incursion into the Palestinian-controlled West Bank cities of Jenin and Tul Karm, repors said. Meanwhile, an armed clash was reported between the Islamic Jihad group and Palestinian police in Gaza.
Palestinian medics and family members were quoted by Haaretz daily as saying that Mohammed Salah, 12, was shot dead when he and other schoolboys threw stones at an Israeli tank stationed near the village of Wad Burqin, close to Jenin.
At the southern entrance to the Jenin, troops opened fire and killed Rami As'oos, 18, when he tried to pass the road blocked by an armored vehicle, witnesses said. The occupation army said it was checking both incidents, said the Tel Aviv-based newspaper.
Meanwhile, Palestinian police failed for the second time in a month to arrest a senior leader of the Islamic Jihad group, Mohammed Al Hindi, and sparked a gun-battle with his bodyguards, said Hindi and an AFP correspondent at the scene.
"Yes, Palestinian police tried to arrest me at my home. They surrounded my house when I was inside. But my supporters came to protest and then there was some shooting," Hindi told AFP.
"There was no reason" for his arrest, he added.
More than 100 armed Palestinian police and security men encircled the streets around the house of Hindi in Gaza City, but were forced back during a firefight with his bodyguards.
Stone-throwing supporters chanting "Allah Akbar" (God is greatest) formed a group at the entrance to his house next to a mosque in the city's Al Rimal neighborhood and shielded him down a street where there were no police.
He and other Islamic Jihad members bundled into several cars and sped away.
No one was injured in the shooting, said the agency.
Earlier, at least seven Palestinians were injured or had respiratory problems when they clashed with Israeli troops in the flashpoint city of Hebron, reported the Palestinian official news agency (WAFA).
On Saturday, the Israeli army reinforced its presence around the hotspot West Bank towns of Jenin and Nablus, in fear of more resistance hits, as US peace envoy to the Middle East arrived in Saudi Arabia from Jordan for talks on the Mideast issue.
The move around Jenin was taken for the "pure and simple reason that six of the seven Israelis killed in attacks in recent days were victim of (suicide bombers) from that town,” an Israeli security source told AFP.
"We have also tightened the blockade around the suburbs of Nablus, but our forces have not penetrated Palestinian sectors, neither there nor in Jenin," the source added.
According to the Tel Aviv-based Haaretz newspaper, Tulkarem is another town where the Israeli blockade has been reinforced. It said that the Israeli forces did penetrate the Palestinian-ruled areas.
Palestinian security and Israeli military sources told AFP later that the army also tightened its blockade on Nablus, but with troops still stationed on land under Israeli security control.
Israel said the customary measures came “in response to an extremely high alert for attempts to carry out terror attacks. … The troops also took positions in the cities of Tul Karm and Jenin, areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority.
Security sources told Haaretz that the current alert surpasses any level that it has been during the past year.
For its part, Israeli public radio said Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer ordered the increased deployment because he considers the towns to be "nests of terrorism."
It quoted sources close to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, currently on a five-day visit to the United States, as saying Sharon had ordered a response to recent anti-Israeli attacks.
The radio also said Ben Eliezer and his deputy, Dalia Rabin-Filosof, held an unscheduled meeting Friday with US peace envoy Anthony Zinni. The minister pointed out that there were a number of security alerts in Israel and alleged that the wave of Palestinian violence was aimed at torpedoing Zinni's mission, said the reports.
In the meantime, WAFA reported that Israeli at dawn Saturday made an incursion in the Dora town, 10 kms to the West of Hebron in the West Bank.
The agency quoted witnesses as saying that undercover special units entered the town, supported by five tanks and helicopters. The report did not mention if any arrests took place.
But Haaretz cited Palestinian sources as saying that the Israeli army kidnapped three Islamic Jihad activists in overnight operations carried out in Palestinian Authority-controlled areas of Hebron.
The three detained in Dura were released after being questioned, said AFP.
According to the sources, those captured are: Midal A'jandi, a central figure in the group, and his two brothers, Jalal and Jihad.
But AFP named them as Osama Al Shuweki, 21, Mannaa Al Shuweki, 24 and Ammar Al Shuweki, 26. The three were said to be from the same family, but not brothers.
The incursions came as US envoy Anthony Zinni prepared to tour the Gaza Strip after vowing to stay "as long as it takes" to secure a ceasefire.
Zinni roundly condemned the Thursday attack on a bus in northern Israel that left three Israelis and a suicide bomber dead, accusing radical Palestinian groups of trying to sabotage his mission.
"The groups that do this are clearly trying to make my mission fail, this mission to try to end this violence and to get back on the path of peace," Zinni said on Friday.
And US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs William Burns visited Saudi Arabia on Saturday for talks with the kingdom's leaders on Middle East peace, diplomatic sources said.
He flew into Riyadh overnight from Amman, where Jordan's King Abdullah II told him a US peace vision for the Middle East should include an independent Palestinian state.
He also visited Cairo on Thursday where he met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Burns arrived in the region on Monday along with Zinni in a fresh bid by the United States to broker a Palestinian-Israeli ceasefire and revive their moribund peace negotiations.
Saudi Arabia has welcomed the new US moves on the Middle East, but called on Washington to translate words into action and apply more pressure on Israel to accept a comprehensive and just peace deal – Albawaba.com
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