An Israeli settler in the West Bank, a militant trying to infiltrate a Jewish settlement and a Palestinian pursued by police in a Jerusalem car chase were killed yesterday.
On Saturday, Israeli soldiers shot dead two Palestinian boys aged nine and 15, medics said. Also on Saturday, soldiers killed a Palestinian civilian in Balata refugee camp in the West Bank, a militant stronghold.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group within Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, claimed responsibility for killing the settler in a roadside ambush of his car near the West Bank city of Jenin.
PHOTO: AFP
The brigades called the shooting revenge for Israel's killing of its West Bank leader on June 26.
Several hours earlier soldiers killed a Palestinian gunman who the army said was trying to infiltrate the settlement of Har Bracha near the West Bank city of Nablus.
In Jerusalem, paramilitary border police in civilian clothes shot dead a Palestinian after chasing his vehicle, which they suspected was carrying Palestinians without entry permits, a police spokesman said.
"The van tried to run down one of the policemen ... and then pulled over and stopped. The driver got out and fled on foot. Police fired in the air, and when he didn't stop, shot towards him. He was fatally wounded," he said.
Israeli troops have been operating in Beit Hanoun since a rocket that militants fired from the area killed two people in the southern Israeli town of Sderot last Monday.
Military sources have said the soldiers could remain in northern Gaza for months.
Violence has surged in Gaza since Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he planned to pull out soldiers and settlers by the end of next year, as Palestinian militants and the army vie for supremacy before a withdrawal.
Meanwhile, the order from Israel's supreme court to reroute the West Bank separation barrier shows there is no need for the world court to intervene, Israeli political leaders said yesterday.
"I believe that, after the ruling of the Israeli high court of justice, it is obvious to everyone that our judicial system can provide an appropriate response to all Palestinian claims and complaints," Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told army radio.
Shalom's comments come ahead of an expected verdict from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday on the legality of the barrier, which Israel is widely expected to lose.
The government is readying for defeat in the non-binding judgement by the highest UN legal body.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was also quoted as telling yesterday's Cabinet meeting that the supreme court's order to reroute the barrier near Jerusalem after a petition by Palestinian residents should be used "as a juridical answer to the web of lies being woven against Israel" at the ICJ.
He said that a new route would be finalized within a few weeks in order to comply with the court ruling that while the barrier could be justified for security reasons, the current path violated the rights of some 35,000 Palestinians living in the area. Israel has already made clear that it has no intention of scrapping the whole barrier, regardless of the ICJ verdict.
While Israel faced a barrage of criticism at hearings in The Hague in February, all the major world powers restricted their input to written submissions, arguing that the courtroom was an inappropriate venue for the issue to be subjected to international debate.
In the event of later UN Security Council action regarding the barrier judgement, the US is widely expected to use its veto to kill any resolution.
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Canada that if it concludes a trade deal with China, he would impose a 100 percent tariff on all goods coming over the border. Relations between the US and its northern neighbor have been rocky since Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with spats over trade and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decrying a “rupture” in the US-led global order. During a visit to Beijing earlier this month, Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China that resulted in a “preliminary, but landmark trade agreement” to reduce tariffs — but
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
RSS