NABLUS, West Bank, 21 October — Israel continued its offensive against the Palestinians yesterday, sending its tanks and troops into the northern West Bank towns of Tulkarm and Qalqilya. Israeli troops killed eight Palestinians, including three security force members, in the fresh aggression stoking fears that the year-old conflict would spin out of control.
Access to the area, which was described as a residential neighborhood near Bethlehem University, was closed off.
The troops charged before dawn into the northern West Bank cities of Qalqilya and Tulkarem. They shot dead two members of the Palestinian security forces — Mustapha Zetani, 53 and Maher Abu Hassan, 33 — and wounded another in self-ruled Tulkarem, while a Palestinian policeman and civilian were killed in Qalqiliya.
A 23-year-old woman, Rania Kharufa, was later killed by shrapnel from a tank shell which exploded near her house in the autonomous Palestinian town of Beit Jala, next to Bethlehem in the West Bank, hospital sources said.
Another woman, 48-year-old Aysha Abu Uda, was killed by a spray of bullets fired by Israeli troops at her home in the Ayda refugee camp on the northern outskirts of Bethlehem, hospital sources said.
Israeli tank fire also killed a 17-year-old Palestinian in the autonomous town of Bethlehem yesterday. Yusef Abayat was shot in the southeastern part of town while 19-year-old Johnny Thalgia was shot dead by Israeli troops near the Church of the Nativity in the afternoon. Hospital sources added that six other Palestinians, including three policemen, were injured by Israeli gunshots in Beit Jala.
In another incident, at least three Israeli missiles struck a Palestinian site in Bethlehem yesterday, wounding at least eight people, Palestinian witnesses and hospital officials said. Palestinian security sources said Israeli soldiers had occupied several houses in both cities and destroyed five Palestinian security posts in Qalqilya. Israel’s military also cordoned off six cities and towns following the raids.
In Tel Aviv, the Israeli military said in a statement that it had “killed or arrested” some 20 Palestinians in army ground operations in Palestinian territory in the West Bank since Thursday.
It also said earlier that “following events of recent days, Israeli forces encircled Tulkarem and Qalqilya, and took possession of the headquarters of the Palestinian security forces in the latter place.”
The ensuing clashes had “caused no injuries in Israeli ranks,” it said, and added that “several Palestinian suspects were arrested during the operation.”
The Palestinian side confirmed seven Palestinians had been captured, including two members of Arafat’s elite Force 17 bodyguard corps.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a top aide to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat told Voice of Palestine Radio that the Palestinian Authority was demanding an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the Israeli aggression.
Armed Palestinians resisted the tanks, which roared into Palestinian-controlled Tulkarm from several directions, Palestinian sources said, and two Palestinian security officers were killed in the fighting.
The Israeli Army said its forces had cordoned off both cities and taken up “commanding areas...and destroyed positions from which there has been (Palestinian) gunfire in the past”.
