Last update - 00:00 24/11/2006
Five Palestinian militants killed Saturday in IDF raids in Gaza
By Avi Issacharoff and Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondents, and Agencies
Five Palestinian militants were killed in Israel Defense Forces operations in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, as militants in Gaza continued to fire Qassam rockets into Israel.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday agreed to a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, to go into effect a 6 A.M. on Sunday.
The five killed were all identified as militants, four belonging to Hamas and one to the Islamic Jihad.
Two Hamas militants were killed late Saturday in an Israel Air Forces attack on their vehicle in Gaza. They were named as Walid Komboz and Khaled Abdullah.
Earlier Saturday evening, a Hamas militant was killed and four other people were wounded in an IAF strike on a vehicle in Gaza City's Zeitun quarter.
The military said it ordered an airs trike that hit a vehicle carrying Hamas militants involved in weapons production. It had no further details, and said it was checking into the report about a second blast.
The militant was identified as Mahmoud Khush. A second strike near Al-Zahar University caused no injuries.
In the morning, IDF tanks fired from mounted machine guns toward a group of men near a housing project outside of the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahia, critically wounding three people, doctors said.
One of the men later died of his wounds and was identified as an Islamic Jihad militant.
IDF soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian man near the Karni border crossing between Israel and the northern Gaza Strip early Saturday, Palestinian medical officials said. It was not immediately clear whether the man was armed.
An army spokeswoman said soldiers fired at three people as they approached the border area and identified hitting one.
A Qassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip Saturday scored a direct hit on a house in Sderot, penetrating the roof and causing damage inside. No injuries were reported.
IDF tank crews subsequently located and fired on the launch site from which the rocket was fired.
Gaza tunnel collapses
Later Saturday, a tunnel under the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt collapsed, trapping several people, but Palestinian security officials weren't immediately able to say whether it served to smuggle contraband or weapons to Palestinian militants.
In the afternoon, the IDF and Shin Bet security service discovered a weapons laboratory in the West Bank city of Nablus.
A Palestinian security official said one man was dug out from the rubble and an undetermined number of others were trapped in the debris.
The official, Col. Hussein Abu Omar, said the tunnel was dug from inside a Gaza house some 100 meters from the border with Egypt. It was not clear how far it extended into Egypt.
Abu Omar had no details about the owner of the house or further information about the tunnel.
Security forces dug out one person from the rubble, and bulldozers were removing debris so rescuers could look for others.
"What we know right now is that a tunnel collapsed and there are people inside," Abu Omar said. It was not clear how many people were inside, he said.
The man who was pulled out of the debris was taken to a hospital, then left without being questioned by police, hospital and security officials said.
Stuffed animals were found in the Nablus raid containing explosive charges, as well as belts intended for use as explosive devices and batteries.
The laboratory was detonated in a controlled explosion by a sapper crew.
Senior Fatah man arrested in Qalandiyah
Meanwhile, IDF troops and Shin Bet officers arrested Khaled Salim - a senior member of Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades military wing, who had been on the wanted list for four years - in Ramllah's Qalandiyah refugee camp.
Security forces surrounded the house in which Salim was located and called on him to turn himself in.
Salim attempted to flee and was fired on by troops. He was then administered medical treatment.
The army says Salim, 27, of the village of Jius near Qalqilyah, was involved in in planning an ambush somewhere in the northern West Bank.
In 2004, he recruited a cell of the Fatah-affiliated Tanzim militant group, promising to provide them with arms in exchange for the kidnapping of an Israeli taxi driver. Members of the cell were arrested on their way into Israel.
Two IDF soldiers wounded in Gaza, three Palestinians killed on Friday
Three Palestinians were killed and two IDF soldiers were lightly wounded in two separate incidents in the Gaza Strip on Friday.
Palestinian sources said a Hamas camerman who filmed attacks against Israel for the Islamic militant organiztaion was killed by IDF gunfire in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, Israel Radio reported.
The soldiers were lightly wounded when their armored vehicle drove over an explosive device in the Strip. They were evacauted to a hospital by helicopter.
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired five Qassam rockets at the western Negev on Friday. Two rockets landed in the Negev on Thursday night, damaging a building. There were no injuries in any of the incidents.
Two Palestinians, a Hamas militant named Ayman Juda, 22, and Abed al-Aziz Salaman, 10, were killed by the IDF in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday.
In the wake of ongoing rocket fire on Sderot, IDF troops will be escorting children to school in the Negev town on Friday, Israel Radio reported.
In the West Bank cities of Nablus and Tul Karm, militants threw several explosive devices at IDF troops, causing no injuries.
Security forces arrested seven wanted Palestinians in the West Bank overnight Friday.
On Thursday, a 57-year-old woman became the first grandmother suicide bomber, blowing herself up near IDF troops operating in northern Gaza, lightly wounding three soldiers. Also in northern Gaza on Thursday, an Israel Air Force strike killed the commander of the Popular Resistance Committees, along with his deputy.
Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Fatah said Thursday night that they are willing to stop launching Qassam rockets at Israel if the IDF ceases its operations in the Gaza Strip. Government spokeswoman Miri Eisin responded to the proposal by saying Israel would only stop its actions after militants laid down their weapons.