GAZA, 18 January — A man opened fire late yesterday on a ballroom in the northern Israel city of Hadera, killing five people, Israeli military radio said. The radio did not immediately say who had carried out the attack.
"A man entered the wedding hall and opened fire. Dozens of people were hit, but I can’t discuss fatalities now," an ambulance worker earlier told Israel’s Channel Two television.
The latest violence came as Israel tightened its blockade of Palestinian towns and a Palestinian faction threatened to target self-rule officials for detaining its leader. The military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) threatened to target Palestinian security chiefs if they did not release Ahmed Saadat who was arrested late on Tuesday. The Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the PFLP’s military wing, issued a leaflet condemning the Palestinian Authority’s arrest of Saadat as "submission to Israeli and American dictates". The group urged Palestinian security chiefs to release him and stop arresting PFLP members.
"Otherwise our hands will reach them (the security chiefs) regardless of how many guards they place around themselves," it said. The PFLP’s political branch called for an urgent meeting of the PLO, of which the PFLP is one of the main factions, to discuss the arrest.
The Israeli Army tightened troop and tank blockades of Palestinian towns and shot dead a Palestinian. Long queues of traffic spluttered to a halt at checkpoints on the edges of Nablus, Ramallah, Tulkarm, Jenin and Qalqilya in the West Bank after the decision to toughen the blockades, taken by Israel’s security Cabinet at a late-night meeting.
