Israel seizes Palestinian fugitives in market raid

[Awesome]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003510339_mideast05.html

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israeli undercover troops burst into a West Bank vegetable market Thursday, seizing four fugitives and exchanging heavy fire with Palestinians in the first major raid since the Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to try to ease tensions. Four Palestinian civilians reportedly were killed.

Factional fighting among Palestinian groups also surged, leaving at least six dead and prompting a meeting early today between rival leaders — President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. Haniyeh said they had agreed to pull back their forces.

The agreement came hours after six Palestinians, including a senior security officer, were killed and more than a dozen wounded in fighting in Gaza between gunmen loyal to Hamas and those allied with Fatah.

In the Ramallah raid, four Palestinian civilians were killed and 20 wounded. Abbas said Israel's peace promises rang hollow in light of the raid and demanded $5 million in compensation for the damage to shops and cars in Ramallah.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak just after the Ramallah raid, apologized for any civilian casualties, but said the operation was intended to protect Israel from attacks.

"Things developed in a way that could not have been predicted in advance. If innocent people were hurt, this was not our intention," he said.

The summit had been intended to push for new peace efforts but was overshadowed by the violence.

Standing next to Olmert in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheik, Mubarak condemned the raid in Ramallah. "Israel's security cannot be achieved through military force but by serious endeavors toward peace," he said.

In Washington, a senior European Union diplomat said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to the Middle East this month to try to promote peacemaking.

 

[EagleEyes]

These kind of things are nothing usual for the Israelis. They will continue to bomb and exchange fires. The losers are the civilians in Palestine.

American foreign policy for Israel is real messed up. Amercans tax payers pay millions of dollars every year to make Israel stronger, and the stronger doesn't come up with a resolution, or bow down to the weaker.

There could be peace if Americans stop supplying bombs & guns to Israel and rather feed the innocent civilians of Palestine who you took their home away from them & made them refugees.

 

[Awesome]

Israel conducts raid in West Bank

Nablus (West Bank), Jan. 7 (AP): Israeli troops carried out a large-scale arrest raid in this West Bank city early on Sunday, surrounding a building and detaining at least four people, Palestinian security officials said.

About 20 army jeeps drove into Nablus before dawn, and the sound of explosions and gunfire could be heard across the city for several hours, residents said.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

The Nablus raid came just three days after a similar operation in the West Bank town of Ramallah, in which four Palestinians were killed and more than two dozen wounded.

The operations came despite an understanding between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas two weeks ago that they would try to calm the atmosphere in the Palestinian territories, as part of an attempt to restart peace talks.

Abbas, locked in a violent power struggle with the Islamic militant Hamas, had angrily denounced the Ramallah raid, saying it was a sign that Israel's assurances that it is seeking peace cannot be believed. Olmert at the time apologized for the loss of lives, while the army portrayed the Ramallah raid as a routine operation.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/003200701071340.htm

 

[Cheetah786]

I wonder when these MUslim brothers will get help from Saudia.

 

[A.Rahman]

I wonder when these MUslim brothers will get help from Saudia.

why single out saudi arabia?