GAZA CITY, 7 November 2004 — Israeli forces killed four Palestinians, including a schoolboy, during clashes in the Gaza Strip and West Bank yesterday, the army and witnesses said. In a separate incident, three Palestinian militants were killed in a car explosion in the West Bank that their faction blamed on an Israeli booby trap. Israeli military sources denied involvement.
In the Gaza Strip, troops backed by a helicopter gunship killed two gunmen who were spotted planting a bomb outside Gush Katif, the main Jewish settlement bloc. The militant group Islamic Jihad identified the two dead men as its fighters.
Near the Gaza-Israel boundary, Israeli troops opened fire on two Palestinians who entered a no-go area and were suspected of being armed, military sources said. Palestinian medics said one of the Palestinians was killed. His identity was not known.
In the West Bank, Israeli troops shot dead a 14-year-old stone-thrower, witnesses said. Military sources said the youth killed in the city of Jenin, a bastion of Palestinian militants waging a 4-year-old uprising, was holding a Molotov cocktail.
Palestinian militants have stepped up attacks in Gaza since Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced a plan to withdraw troops and settlers from the coastal strip next year. Israel has vowed to crush the Gaza militants, fearing they could embolden gunmen in the West Bank, another territory that Palestinians want as part of a state.
The deaths brought the number of people killed since the beginning of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in September 2000 to 4,559, including 3,525 Palestinians and 960 Israelis. Israeli army sources in Jerusalem had initially said three Palestinians were killed in the firefight in the Gaza Strip, but later revised the toll down to two.
In a telephone call to AFP, the Jihad movement claimed responsibility for an assault on Neve Dekalim, part of the Gush Katif settlement bloc in southern Gaza. The group said two of its members — Omar Nufal, 26, and Ramzi Al-Jaabir, 29 — had been killed, while the fate of a third was unknown.
Meanwhile, Lebanese Shiite resistance group Hezbollah called on Palestinians yesterday to unite ahead of the looming death of their leader, Yasser Arafat, saying Israel is counting on discord in their ranks. “Palestinians in general and Palestinian groups in particular are called upon to unite and cooperate with each other to get through this tough and crucial period,” the Hezbollah leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, was quoted as saying by the local press.
“The Israelis are counting on negative repercussions (in the event of Arafat’s death) and expect Palestinians to lose themselves and to kill and confront each other,” said Nasrallah, whose movement has close links with Palestinian militant groups.
