OCCUPIED JERUSALEM/JEDDAH, 17 July — Israeli tanks again penetrated Palestinian-controlled territory in at least two locations yesterday, as Palestinian West Bank Preventive Security Chief Jibril Rajoub warned against an escalation in the ongoing violence between Israel and the Palestinians. Palestinian sources said at least 30 Palestinians were injured yesterday when Israeli tanks shelled areas in the West Bank town of Hebron, the Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.
The shelling damaged four positions of the Palestinian Force 17 presidential guard and the Communications Ministry’s headquarters. Israeli troops and tanks made an incursion into the Palestinian-controlled area, advancing between 500 to 1,000 meters from various directions. It was the second such incursion into Hebron in three days.
In Jeddah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd warned yesterday that the continuing Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians would plunge the “whole region into a dangerous phase”, the Saudi Press Agency reported quoting Information Minister Dr. Fuad Al-Farsi. “The king underscored the risks of the irresponsible Israeli escalation in Palestine at a time the international community was exerting efforts for peace,” the minister said following a Cabinet meeting.
“Israel’s systematic actions of blowing up houses, destroying farms, expelling people and starving the unarmed Palestinians will plunge the whole region into a dangerous phase with untold consequences,” the king told the weekly Cabinet meeting. King Fahd stressed the need for activating the international role to stop the Israeli escalation and its move to eradicate the Palestinians.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian movement Islamic Jihad has claimed responsibility for the suicide attack which killed the bomber and two others in northern Israel yesterday, in a statement sent to AFP in Beirut. “Nidal Mustapha Ibrahim Shaduf, 20, belonging to a group of the chief martyr, Muhammad Busharat, blew himself up in a gathering of Zionist Jews near the station of Binyamina,” said the statement from the “Brigades of Al-Qods (Jerusalem)” of the Islamic Jihad in Palestine. Three people, including the bomber were killed in the attack in front of a station in northern Israel.
