Israeli troops shot and killed two Palestinians east of Gaza City, the Palestinian News Agency reported Monday. It identified one of the dead as Khalil Ibrahim Bawadi, 23, a resident of Jabalya refugee camp.
Elsewhere, Israeli forces raided Monday some Palestinian towns in the West Bank and killed another Palestinian. Palestinian sources said Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades was shot and killed during gun battle with Israeli troops in Jenin.
In the refugee camp of Balata, near Nablus occupation troops shot and injured Samir Khdaish, aged 24, while trying to arrest him. Khdaish was a local inhabitant of the camp and a PFLP activist.
Also, Israeli troops moved into the West Bank village of Tarmesiya, north of Ramallah and imposed a tight curfew on the area. Eyewitnesses said that flares have been shot in the air by the Israeli troops, who blockaded the village from all axis.
In the Budrus Village, west of Ramallah, the Israeli Army declared the area a closed military zone, as a part of the next stage of the West Bank barrier construction.
Local sources confirmed that the Israeli authorities have handed over written warnings to the village inhabitants, warning them not to get near the construction area of the barrier, and attempting to prevent international peace activists and media from entering the village.
Meanwhile, the US will not oppose "evacuation" of Gaza Strip settlements, but will not allow Israel to expand West Bank settlements concurrently, according to a report in HaAretz daily.
American officials have also told their Israeli counterparts recently that the Bush administration is not in favor of transferring Gaza settlers to the West Bank.
The officials say Washington expects Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's withdrawal plan to be complementary to the US-backed road map for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The administration is not ready to give up on the road map and to replace it with Sharon's unilateral plan, according to the report Monday. (Albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
