Last update - 00:00 29/05/2007
IDF troops kill two Fatah militants in separate West Bank raids
By Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff, Mijal Grinberg, Amiram Barkat and Or Kashti, Haaretz Correspondents
Israel Defense Forces troops killed two Fatah militants Tuesday during separate raids in the West Bank.
IDF special forces in Ramallah tried to arrest Omar Abdel-Halim, a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and a former member of the elite Force 17. An exchange of fire broke out during the raid, in which the 22-year old Abdel-Halim was killed and four other Palestinians were wounded.
Adbel-Halim was considered an associate of Khaled Shwish, who was arrested by the IDF on Monday. Shwish was one of the founders of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Bridages, and is believed to be responsible for the deaths of eight Israelis.
Special forces near Jenin killed Mohammed Mara'i, who five days ago announced the formation of a new Fatah militant offshoot, the Abu Amar Brigades.
Near the West Bank city of Tul Karm, IDF troops shot and wounded a Palestinian militant that opened fire on them, Israel Radio reported early Wednesday monrning.
Earlier Tuesday, the Israel Air Force carried out a strike against a Hamas training camp in the southern Gaza Strip, causing no injuries.
According to the Israel Defense Forces, the camp was located at the site of the former settlement of Atzmona.
The strike came a short while after three Islamic Jihad militants were killed in an explosion in the central Gaza Strip.
The IDF denied involvement, and a Palestinian security source said it appeared the three militants were killed in a so-called "work accident," when explosives they were handling detonated accidentally.
Also Tuesday, IDF troops shot and killed two Hamas militants in a gunbattle that broke out during a cross-border raid into Gaza.
Hamas confirmed the incident and said its gunmen were involved in a shootout with Israeli troops less than a mile inside the central part of the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian medical officials identified the dead men as Abdul Karim Shaath and Mohammed Muamar, both Hamas militants. A woman - the wife of another wanted Hamas militant - was injured in the shootout and two other men were arrested, the officials said.
Three Qassam rockets hit the western Negev on Tuesday, causing no damage or injuries.
Israeli forces arrested 12 wanted Palestinian militants in the Balata refugee camp in the West Bank town of Nablus early Tuesday, including Palestinian parliament member Jamal Tirawi from Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction.
Tirawi, 41, who serves as the Fatah spokesman in the Palestinian parliament, has been wanted by Israel for his alleged militant activity since the start of the violent Palestinian uprising in 2000.
Israeli troops nabbed him along with four of his bodyguards, his brother Said Tirawi said.
The IAF fired missiles at a building used by Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip late Monday after an almost 24-hour lapse in airstrikes, Palestinian witnesses and an Israel Defense Forces spokesman said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Earlier Monday, seventeen Qassam rockets struck the western Negev.