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Israeli Forces Grab Militants in W.Bank

Posted by Jeff (Guest) jeff@attoz.com - Saturday, October 25 2003, 19:07:21 (EDT)
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Israeli Forces Grab Militants in W.Bank Hospitals
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By Nadia Saad

NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli soldiers snatched two Palestinian militants from West Bank hospitals on Saturday in a raid launched after three soldiers were killed in the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) in a joint attack by Islamic militant groups.

Israel accuses Palestinian officials of violating international law by allowing militants to use hospitals as sanctuaries to evade arrest and plan attacks against Israelis.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat described the raid as "a grave development that contravenes international law."

Soldiers barged into the Anglican hospital in Nablus and seized Hamas militant Khaled al-Hamad from an intensive care unit bed where he was being treated for wounds sustained when a bomb he was transporting apparently detonated prematurely.

They put him into a waiting military ambulance and transferred him to a Tel Aviv area hospital where he will be treated under guard, an Israeli security official said.

A second senior Palestinian militant, Jawad Ishtayeh, was arrested at Nablus's Rafidia hospital where he ran a cell of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades from the hospital's basement, the official said, adding he was armed and was "in perfect health."

Ishtayeh's relatives confirmed he was an al-Aqsa Brigades member but had no details on what he was doing in the hospital.

Rafidia medical staff were shut in their offices as troops searched for the suspect who was taken away with bound hands.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops dynamited a Palestinian security building after demanding all those inside leave with their hands above their head. The building was near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim, which was attacked on Friday.

An Israeli military official described the action as a "pinpoint operation against the terror infrastructure," but declined to provide further details. There were no reports of casualties in the operation in central Gaza.

SEARCHING FOR MILITANTS

Israel Radio said the soldiers were carrying out searches for militants and weapons caches used to help carry out the attack on Netzarim on Friday in which a Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant killed three soldiers, two of them women.

The gunman from Hamas was killed, the other escaped.

The attack took place days after Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shallah and senior Hamas leader Khaled Mashal agreed to enhance "field cooperation" in a meeting in Syria. Both groups are sworn to Israel's destruction.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is linked to President Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s Fatah (news - web sites) faction, have spearheaded attacks against Israel in a three-year-old Palestinian uprising which began after peace talks deadlocked.

Senior Hamas official Adnan Asfour said Hamas leaders also held a separate meeting with leaders from the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hizbollah guerrilla group. He gave no details.

But he said the Hamas and Islamic Jihad meeting was about on-the-ground cooperation "to resist the occupation."

The U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan received a further setback this week when Israel announced it would build more than 300 houses in Jewish settlements and may expand a controversial barrier it says is to keep suicide bombers out of its cities.

The plans to extend the barrier along the eastern side of the West Bank would encircle Palestinians with electronic fences and concrete walls. Erekat said it showed "Israel's intention is not security but to turn our land into big jails."

Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rdainah said the plan amounted to "a declaration of comprehensive war against the Palestinians."

Washington has criticized the barrier due to its intrusion on territory Palestinians plan for their state.

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-- Jeff

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