- GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli
forces killed four Palestinians in a raid by tanks and helicopter gunships
on a refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip early on Thursday, witnesses
and hospital officials said.
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- In the West Bank, witnesses said troops shot dead two
Palestinians in separate incidents, one a 14-year-old boy.
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- The army said the overnight operation in Rafah camp targeted
buildings used by gunmen and arms smugglers. It did not comment on the
dead youth in Qalqilya town, but said forces in nearby Nablus killed a
wanted man from the militant group Hamas.
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- Despite Washington's appeals for calm, a 30-month-old
Palestinian uprising for independence and Israeli military crackdowns have
continued sporadically since the start of a U.S.-led war on Iraq last month.
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- Witnesses said helicopters roared overhead as about 30
Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers accompanied by armored bulldozers
penetrated Rafah, a hardscrabble camp near Gaza's border with Egypt, just
after midnight.
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- A Palestinian gunman was killed in the ensuing clashes.
Another three people died in a helicopter missile strike. The army described
them as fighters armed with rifles and grenades, while witnesses said they
were unarmed bystanders.
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- The army said it razed four uninhabited buildings that
served as gun nests for militants and were used to conceal tunnels for
smuggling munitions from nearby Egypt.
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- At least 1,966 Palestinians and 727 Israelis have been
killed since the Palestinian revolt began in September 2000.
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- In Nablus, witnesses said Israeli special forces swooped
on a residential building and, after its occupants fired at them, shot
dead Khaled Samakri, a Jordanian citizen who had been in the West Bank
for three years.
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- ARMY SAYS HAMAS MAN HELD
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- The army said Samakri was a wanted Hamas man, and that
its forces arrested another member of the Islamic militant group in the
predawn operation.
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- In the West Bank town of Qalqilya, witnesses said soldiers
firing from jeeps shot and killed a 14-year-old boy who was standing outside
his home. The army said it was investigating.
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- The overnight violence followed an Israeli sweep in the
West Bank town of Tulkarm on Wednesday in which troops rounded up hundreds
of Palestinians three days after a local suicide bomber struck a nearby
Israeli seaside town, wounding 30 people.
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- Palestinian officials denounced the operation, accusing
Israel of intensifying its clampdown on the Palestinians while world attention
was turned to war in Iraq. Israel said the sweep was justified by heightened
security concerns.
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- Palestinian witnesses said about 2,000 people were brought
in. The Israeli army said it was about half that number.
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- Eleven were identified as wanted militants and taken
into custody, the army said. It said most others were freed after identity
checks and some were still being questioned.
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- The United States, chief mediator in the conflict, is
now preoccupied with war in Iraq and facing rising anti-American resentment
in the Arab world. It has urged Israel to restrain military operations
and called on Palestinians to curb attacks.
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- Palestinian violence has tailed off somewhat since U.S.
and British forces invaded Iraq on March 20, while Israel has cut back
on its raids against Islamic militants in Gaza.
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- Against this backdrop, security officers from Gaza met
recently with Israeli counterparts for the first time in months, Palestinian
Major General Abdel-Razek al-Majaydeh told Reuters.
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- But he said the meeting was at a junior level and did
not signify resumption of long-suspended security cooperation talks. "There
were no results from the meeting," he said on Wednesday.
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