Israeli Troops Kill Teen, Hurt 17 in Clashes
By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, December 28, 2003; Page A16
JERUSALEM, Dec. 27 -- Israeli troops clashing with Palestinians throwing stones and molotov cocktails shot and killed a teenager and wounded 17 other people Saturday as soldiers and armored vehicles raided the West Bank city of Nablus in the largest show of Israeli force in the city in nearly a year, Palestinian security officials said.
An Israeli military spokesman, who declined to be identified by name, said the reported killing was under investigation and described the operations as "pretty routine, pinpoint activities" intended to arrest wanted militants. He said no militants had been arrested.
Palestinian security officials said soldiers shot the teenager in the back during one of dozens of clashes between tanks and other Israeli armored vehicles and groups of boys and young men.
At midday, a Nablus resident reached by telephone said: "Clashes are taking place all over the city. The whole city is a battlefield."
Witnesses said tanks and soldiers operated throughout the city, often opening fire on groups of men and boys who ran into the streets and alleyways and threw stones and bottles of explosives. Tanks established road blocks that sliced the city in half, cutting off civilian travel from one side to the other, witnesses said.
The Israeli spokesman said that the operations were part of ongoing searches for militants that began early last week and that the show of force was not retaliation for the suicide bombing at a bus stop in a Tel Aviv suburb on Christmas. That blast killed four Israelis and the bomber.
A militant group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, claimed responsibility for the bombing, the first suicide attack inside Israel in nearly three months, and identified the bomber as Saed Hanani, 18, from the village of Beit Furik, near Nablus. Just hours after the bombing, Israeli forces demolished his family home, an Israeli response that has become routine after bombings and other attacks.
Meanwhile, in response to another military action, the Israeli army's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, said he had ordered an investigation of troops who opened fire Friday on Israeli and international activists protesting a barrier Israel is building around the West Bank. An Israeli man was seriously injured and an American woman was slightly wounded in the incident, Israeli officials said.
The chief of the Israeli parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee, Yuval Steinitz, said Saturday that he would also establish a commission to investigate the shooting. Several political leaders and a crowd of about 300 protesters in Tel Aviv criticized the military on Saturday for shooting at the Israeli citizens, near the village of Masha in the central West Bank.
Gil Naamati, 22, an Israeli who finished his active-duty service in the army last month in a combat unit, was hit and seriously wounded in the shooting, hospital officials said.
Anne Farina, 26, an American, told the Reuters news service that she had been slightly wounded by shrapnel during the incident. She was among the protesters demonstrating against the barrier, which has been criticized by the U.S. government, the United Nations, human rights organizations, Palestinians and other groups because it cuts deeply into Palestinian territory. Opponents have also said that it would preclude future negotiations on the borders of a Palestinian state. Israeli officials have argued that the barrier is needed to protect Israelis from suicide bombers and other attacks and deny it represents a permanent border.
The Israeli military, in a statement released late Friday, said soldiers had fired on the protesters because some of them were hanging on the fence and others were trying to cut through it.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
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