0
NABLUS, March 9: An Israeli F-16 fired a missile on a local residence used by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the West Bank town of Nablus, Palestinian security sources said on Saturday.
The building was badly damaged and five people were lightly injured in the attack, Palestinian security sources and witnesses said.
Earlier in the day, helicopters fired at least two rockets on the building of the Nablus governor, while a special unit destroyed a building was used by Palestinians to fire on soldiers and settlers near Khan Yunis.
Arafat is currently in the West Bank town of Ramallah, where he has been confined by the Israeli military for three months.
Israeli army tanks also raided the village of Wadi al-Salqa in the south of the Gaza Strip and opened fire with heavy machineguns and shells, following an incident at a nearby checkpoint, Palestinian security sources said.
The tanks entered about a kilometre into the village and opened fire on the area, as well as the neighbouring locality of Qarara, they said, adding that Israeli troops were searching houses.
Shortly before the incursion, Palestinian witnesses said they heard a strong explosion and automatic gunfire near the Kissoufim checkpoint just to the east of Wadi al-Salqa.
STRIKE CALL: The Palestinian Authority and Arab Israelis have called for a general strike on Sunday to denounce Israel’s military activity in the Palestinian territories.
Israel public radio said Arab Israelis are to conduct a strike in Arab areas in Israel and in territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority to protest army raids in refugee camps.
The strike would be held in memory of Friday’s violence, dubbed by Palestinians as “Black Friday”, in which 46 people, only six of them Israelis, were killed, the radio said.
Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority and other political groups also have urged the Palestinians to observe a strike on Sunday to denounce Israeli massacres in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, a statement said on Saturday.
Shops, schools, public transport and all businesses should shut down for a “general strike (on Sunday) to denounce the massacres committed by the Israeli army”, said the statement, carried by the Palestinian news agency, WAFA.
It said the work stoppage is aimed at condemning “Black Friday”, which was the deadliest day since the first Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in 1987.
Elsewhere on Saturday, Arab Israelis demonstrated in the village of Sahnin, 15kms north of Nazareth, against the army’s activity in the territories, and in the eastern sector of occupied Al Quds, Israel army radio said.
Demonstrators threw stones at Israeli police who broke up the protest, arresting one, the radio said.—AFP
