BETHLEHEM, 20 October — Israeli forces laid siege yesterday to the self-rule town of Bethlehem on the West Bank as six more Palestinians were assassinated by troops after 20 Israeli tanks penetrated deep into the autonomous Palestinian town. The army said it entered Beit Jala, Bethlehem and Beit Sahur overnight in response to shooting and mortar fire at the southern Jerusalem location of Gilo.
In Bethlehem, troops set up base in the central Paradise and Inter-Continental hotels bordering Israeli and Palestinian-controlled territory, while in Beit Jala they advanced some 1.5 kilometers into the town and took over several houses and outposts. The army also entered the nearby Aida refugee camp, Palestinian said, adding that the army incursions met with relatively little resistance, apart from sporadic shooting.
Israeli troops also made deeper incursions yesterday into the West Bank cities of Jenin, Nablus and Ramallah, after surrounding them early Thursday in response to the assassination of Zeevi.
More than 20 Palestinians were injured in clashes with invading Israeli troops. Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians yesterday near the West Bank town of Bethlehem, where the army has launched an incursion, hospital sources said.
Abdul Kader Abu Srur was shot on the outskirts of the Aida refugee camp close to Bethlehem, while two other Palestinians were wounded. Israeli troops also gunned down a Palestinian woman, Mariam Sbeh, 35, and wounded four others in the nearby village of Al-Khader. In the morning, policeman Said Abdel Khader Al-Akra was shot in the stomach while trading fire with Israeli soldiers in an autonomous Palestinian section of Ramallah occupied by Israel on Thursday.
Elsewhere, a 21-year-old Palestinian died yesterday in hospital from an Israeli gunshot wound to the head after clashes at the Karni crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, Palestinian hospital.
Jaudat Abdel Hadi Hamad was shot while throwing stones at Israeli soldiers. Three other Palestinians were also wounded in the clashes, hospital sources added.
A Palestinian boy, Bassem Al-Mobasher, 13, was also killed when an Israeli tank shell he was handling exploded in the southern Gaza Strip refugee camp of Khan Yunis, Palestinian security sources said.
Israeli tanks had fired the shell into the camp in the morning, the sources said.
Another Palestinian, Mussa George Abu Id, 20, was shot dead by Israeli troops in Beit Jala yesterday near the West Bank town of Bethlehem.
In Bethlehem, 22 Palestinians were wounded, five seriously, during the fierce gunbattles after Israel mounted its incursion deep into the southern West Bank city, official Palestinian radio reported.
Two Israeli soldiers were shot, while stationed near Rachel’s Tomb at the northern entrance to the autonomous Palestinian town, an Israeli spokesman said.
A Defense Ministry official vowed that the Israeli forces would stay in Bethlehem "as long as necessary" to complete their mission. The United States has called on Israel to halt strikes and exercise restraint.
