Palestinian militants briefly kidnapped three foreign church workers, including an American, while other gunmen set a Palestinian government building ablaze -- violence similar to the internal strife that sparked a government crisis earlier this month.
The renewed lawlessness posed a tough challenge for Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, who took command of the police and internal security forces in a deal last week with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and must now show he can deploy those forces to control militant groups.
PHOTO: AFP
Five gunmen seized the foreigners -- an American, a Briton and an Irishman who had been doing missionary activity in Nablus for about three weeks -- on Friday evening near their apartments, Palestinian security officials said.
No reason was given for the abduction. Officials said the kidnappers belonged to a renegade group of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. The main militant group joined Palestinian security authorities in searching for the hostages, who were taken to the Balata refugee camp.
The men were released after about three hours, but details were sketchy. The hostages were taken to the Palestinian intelligence headquarters. They declined to speak to reporters, and their identities were not released.
The US State Department and British Foreign Office said they were looking into reports of the incident.
Around the same time, about a dozen armed militants wanted by Israel burned a building used by the local Palestinian government in Jenin to demand financial help from the Palestinian Authority, officials said.
The gunmen from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which is affiliated with Arafat's Fatah movement, broke into the building after work hours, fired automatic weapons into the offices and set the building on fire, said the officials.
The militants say they need public support since they cannot work and must remain underground to avoid capture by Israel.
The violence, which appeared unrelated, was the most serious internal unrest in the Palestinian territories since Arafat and Qureia resolved a leadership crisis on Tuesday by agreeing to share control of the Palestinian security forces.
In the Gaza Strip yesterday, about 200 women marched from the town of Beit Lahiya to Bet Hanoun to protest a month-long Israeli military operation to stop rocket fire on Israeli settlements and towns.
"The people of Beit Hanoun are suffering for one month due to the Israeli war machine. It's time for the world to say no and end the aggression," said Jamila Syeem, a Palestinian legislator.
On Friday, Israeli helicopters destroyed a bomb-making factory in a crowded district of Gaza City, gutting a building owned by a young mother who blew herself up in a suicide bombing early this year.
Palestinian medics said two bystanders were injured when one missile slammed into the middle floor of a three-story building, sending a fireball high into the night sky. The building was empty.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS