Israel invades 3 more towns: Many foreigners injured in shooting
TEL AVIV, April 1: Israeli troops fired on a pro-Palestinian demonstration on Monday, wounding several foreigners and a Palestinian cameraman, as Israel moved to consolidate its hold on the West Bank and tighten the siege of Yasser Arafat.
The Jewish state’s forces widened their operations, briefly entering the city of Tulkarem, in the northern West Bank, moving to the outskirts of the biblical city of Bethlehem and Qalqilya in the south.
Eight Israeli soldiers were wounded, one seriously, when Palestinians opened fire on them in the centre of Ramallah.
Israeli forces also dug in around Arafat’s headquarters in Ramallah, putting up sandbags, tents and wire fences that turned his remaining building into a virtual detention centre.
Late in the evening heavy machinegun fire and the sound of grenades were heard in the centre of the town, amid movements of Israeli armoured vehicles.
The fifth bombing in six days in Israel left a suspected Palestinian dead and an Israeli policeman who flagged down his car seriously wounded in the western sector of occupied Al Quds. Two other people were slightly hurt.
Under heavy international pressure to roll back their offensive launched on Friday, nervous Israeli forces fired on some of the army of foreign pacifists roaming the West Bank in solidarity with the Palestinians as well as a carload of journalists in Ramallah.
The Israelis opened fire during a demonstration in the town of Beit Jala near Bethlehem, wounding seven foreigners, two seriously, and a Palestinian cameraman, witnesses and organizers of the protest said.
The group Solidarity International said a 26-year-old Australian woman was hit in the stomach with shrapnel and rushed into surgery. A Frenchman, 54, was shot in the head.
The other foreigners wounded were two Britons, two Americans and a Japanese, the group said. The one Palestinian wounded was a cameraman for Associated Press Television (APTV).
Jerome Lallemand, an activist for the group International Civic Campaign for the Protection of the Palestinian People who witnessed the incident, said about 60 people were demonstrating in support of the Palestinians in Beit Jala.
“An Israeli tank blocked their way and Israeli soldiers opened fire in their direction,” Lallemand said.
An Israeli army spokesman said they were investigating the incident but showed little regret.
“We know for sure that it was an act of provocation carried out on purpose by members of groups supporting terrorists, supporting suicide bombers, killing our women and children,” said the spokesman.
Lallemand said some 500 European pacifists were currently in the region “to demonstrate against the Israeli occupation”. He said they were spread out in various areas, mainly Ramallah, Bethlehem and Beit Jala.
TANKS ON THE MOVE: Also on the move were Israeli tanks, which Palestinian security sources said entered the autonomous city of Tulkarem. Sporadic firing erupted as 10 tanks moved to the centre of the town, but they pulled out after three hours.—AFP
TEL AVIV, April 1: Israeli troops fired on a pro-Palestinian demonstration on Monday, wounding several foreigners and a Palestinian cameraman, as Israel moved to consolidate its hold on the West Bank and tighten the siege of Yasser Arafat.
