NABLUS, 26 August 2003 — Israeli troops pulled out of this West Bank town yesterday but later imposed a curfew in a number of neighboring villages, security sources and witnesses said.
The group of around 100 soldiers who had entered the northern West Bank town on Thursday left in around 20 jeeps and seven tanks in a pre-dawn operation, witnesses said. But Palestinian security sources later said the Israelis had imposed a curfew by loud speaker in about seven villages around Nablus, with two or three jeeps patrolling the streets.
Soldiers entered Nablus in the aftermath of a bomb attack in Jerusalem that left 21 people dead. They conducted house-to-house searches and demolished the house of a bomber. The troops shot dead one wanted militant from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and seriously wounded two others on Friday, Palestinian security sources said.
Meanwhile, the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigade, told AFP it had opened fire on Israeli troops in the village north of Nablus. Israeli military sources confirmed that their troops had come under fire but said there were no casualties.
Palestinian security sources and witnesses also reported that some 100 olive trees had been cut down by the Israeli Army yesterday morning around Busen village, south of Nablus. An Israeli woman was recently injured in a shooting near the site.
