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NABLUS, May 23: Two Palestinians were killed in an explosion at a house in the West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday in what appeared to be an accident while preparing explosives, Palestinian sources said.
Witnesses who came to the scene said the blast appeared to have occurred inside the house and was not the result of an Israeli missile or tank shell.
Two men, aged 28 and 29, were killed in the blast and five people were wounded.
Palestinian security officials closed off the area around the building and removed items from the house, possible evidence in their inquiries.
On Wednesday, Israeli missiles killed three Palestinian fighters, including a senior activist in the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades group, and a civilian in a Nablus refugee camp in the latest attack in Israel’s policy of pre-emptive killings of suspected militants.
ATTACK FOILED: A bomb in a tanker truck triggered a fire on Thursday in Israel’s main fuel depot north of Tel Aviv, but the blaze was dealt with in time, preventing a disaster, Israeli public radio said.
The radio said the bomb had been placed in the cab of the vehicle in the Gelilot depot and exploded by means of a mobile phone. It set the truck on fire but firemen were quick to react and bring the blaze under control.
“We are questioning the driver of the vehicle to try to find out how this attack was organized,” a police official said.
“If he had been transporting a different sort of fuel there could have been a disaster.”
ARMY ENTERS AL KHALIL: Israeli tanks rolled into Palestinian-controlled Al Khalil and Jenin on Wednesday night and arrested 16 Palestinians, a military source said on Thursday.
Thirteen Palestinians were arrested in Al Khalil, in the southern West Bank, three of whom were wanted by Tel Aviv for alleged aggression against the Israeli state, the source said.
The other three were detained in Jenin town, in the northern West Bank.
The troops subsequently withdrew from the Palestinian-controlled part of Al Khalil, the source said.—AFP\Reuters
