Insight into what a Palesinian state would bring:
Wasn't the PA supposed to be reigning in militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad as part of their signed agreements with Israel?
haaretzdaily.com
19:38 11/11/2001 Last update - 19:02 12/11/2001
Hamas vows to avenge IDF killing of militant in West Bank raid
By Amos Harel and Baruch Kra, Ha'aretz Correspondents, Ha'aretz Service and agencies
Aharon Usishkin, 50, was killed at Kfar Hess on Sunday night.
Defense officials Monday received "hot alerts" over intentions to carry out a terrorist attack in central Tel Aviv, as large numbers of police mounted a dragnet for a Palestinian gunman who killed one Israeli and wounded another Sunday night in Moshav Kfar Hess near Kfar Sava.
Hamas also vowed Monday to avenge the killing of one of its members by IDF forces, who entered a Palestinian-controlled village near Nablus in the pre-dawn hours, rounding up suspected Palestinian activists.
Israeli infantry and armor corps troops overnight entered the West Bank village of Tell in a search for militants, killing Hamas activist Mohammed Hassan Reihan in exchange of fire. Reihan was suspected of killing Harel Ben-Nin and Shlomo Liedman, from the settlement of Yitzhar, three years ago.
Tell village is known as a northern West Bank stronghold of Hamas. It has been a base for several terror attacks, including fatal shootings of settlers. After the fire-fight Monday, IDF forces began demolishing the house of Yasser Asira, killed 10 days ago by a missile fired by an IDF helicopter. The army said at the time that Asira was en route to an attack when he was killed.
Some 45 suspects have been arrested in the raid, among them 16 Hamas activists on a 'wanted' list which Israel handed to the Palestinian Authority.
Dozens of soldiers entered Tell shortly after 3 AM (0100 GMT) on Monday, after the army told Palestinian officials there that it planned to search for militants, village council head Adnan al-Seifi told Reuters.
The operation was launched hours after a Palestinian gunman killed one Israeli and wounded another at the entrance to Kfar Hess, a moshav in central Israel about 10 kilometers north of Kfar Sava and 20 kilometers northwest of the Palestinian city of Qalqilyah in the West Bank. Army Radio said slain Kfar Hess security officer, Aharon Usishkin, was the 200th Israeli death since the Palestinian uprising began in late September last year.
Police mounted a wide manhunt in central Israel Monday for the gunman in the Kfar Hess attack.
The defense establishment has decided to expand the use of IDF special forces and other infantry in the fight against terrorists in the West Bank, including Area A. The operations would be pinpointed, last less than a day, and would be mostly in villages and smaller towns under control of the Palestinian Authority. |
