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Two Palestinians Killed in New Israeli Incursions into West Bank
AL-KHALIL (Hebron), West Bank, Dec 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Two Palestinians, including a 12-year-old boy, were killed Saturday by Israeli gunfire in Jenin in the northern West Bank, Palestinian hospital sources said as Israeli forces invaded two Palestinian-ruled sectors of the West Bank early Saturday, arresting Palestinian activists as well as security personnel, news agencies reported.
A Palestinian security source said that in one incursion, Israeli forces, supported by armored vehicles, entered the city of Al-Khalil (Hebron) and arrested three members of the Palestinian group, Jihad, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The men were identified as Osama al-Shuweki, 21, Mannaa al-Shuweki, 24 and Ammar al-Shuweki, 26. The three were said to be from the same family, but not brothers.
In another operation, Israeli forces entered the Dura area, near Al-Khalil, arresting two members of the Palestinian intelligence services and a member of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's Force-17 presidential guard. The three detained in Dura were released after being questioned.
Meanwhile, AFP said the Israeli army had tightened its closure of Al-Khalil (Hebron), a predominantly Palestinian city that is an unwilling host to a group of extremist Jewish settlers. Roadblocks and patrols had also been increased as Israel's long military occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip continues and expands.
The Israeli army also reinforced its presence around the West Bank towns of Jenin and Nablus, a military source said Saturday.
"We are on the outskirts of Jenin which includes an area under Palestinian control," an Israeli military source said. "Near Nablus we are outside the city but not in area A [under Palestinian control]."
Palestinian sources in Jenin said Israeli tanks did not appear to be in Palestinian-ruled areas, but that the city was under siege and bracing for a broader Israeli military offensive.
Israeli Defense Minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, said Saturday that it was not his aim to enter Palestinian-ruled cities as Israel had done after the assassination of an Israeli cabinet minister in October in retaliation for an earlier killing of a Palestinian resistance leader.
"We don't have an interest to enter area A, but I can tell you we won't sit quietly," he told Israel's Channel Two television.
The operation took place as hard-line Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was in the United States preparing for talks Monday with U.S. President George W. Bush, whose administration has criticized recent Israeli raids into Palestinian self-rule territories.
The Israeli move complicated a new U.S. initiative in the region.
Israel has justified its frequent incursions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by saying they are necessary to stop attacks on Israelis during the Palestinian uprising against occupation that erupted in September 2000 after Israeli provocations.
However, Palestinians call the incursions a violation of their territorial rights granted under the Oslo peace accords and subsequent interim agreements.
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