NABLUS, West Bank, 28 December 2003 — A Palestinian teenager was killed here yesterday as the Israeli Army pushed on with an operation to round up militants and maintained a ring of steel around the occupied territories imposed in the aftermath of a Christmas Day suicide bombing.
Raed Rayan, 17, was struck in the head by Israeli Army gunfire during clashes between troops and stone-throwing demonstrators near the Old City of Nablus, Palestinian security sources said. Thirty others were wounded by live fire or rubber coated metal bullets, the sources added.
The Israeli Army has been operating in and around Nablus since Friday on what it called a mission to hunt down wanted Palestinian militants planning to carry out attacks. The operation was launched a day after a bombing near Tel Aviv that killed four people, apart from the bomber.
Around 80 people have so far been rounded up by the Israeli military in Nablus and the adjoining Balata refugee camp, according to Palestinian security sources. The closure of the West Bank has prevented some 33,000 Palestinians from entering Israel for work or business.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has threatened to “disengage” from the Palestinians by implementing his own unilateral measures if they fail to crack down on groups such as Jihad, Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which was behind the Tel Aviv attack.
Sharon was expected to hold talks today with Gen. Giora Eiland, from the military’s general command, about drawing up the “separation plan”, public radio reported. Eiland was being placed in charge of a special department of planning from Jan. 15 that would be directly answerable to Sharon’s office, the report added.
Sharon’s disengagement plan has been widely criticized, with the Americans warning that any unilateral measures must not impede the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
