Five Israelis lightly injured in two separate W. Bank incidents
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and Agencies
Five Israelis were lightly injured Thursday evening in two separate West Bank incidents.
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Four people were lightly injured near the West Bank town of Bethlehem after stones were hurled at their vehicle.
An Israeli resident of Ramat Gan suffered light injuries after shots were fired at his vehicle Thursday evening at the Idna Junction west of the city of Hebron in the West Bank.
The man continued driving to the Tarqumiya check post, where he received medical treatment. The cross-Judea road, where the shooting attack took place, was closed.
Earlier on Thursday, Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed four armed Palestinian militants during gun battles in the West Bank city of Nablus early Thursday, the IDF said.
Three of the four were among a group killed in fighting in the city's Old Quarter (casbah) overnight and the fourth, a member of Islamic Jihad, was shot dead while trying to plant a bomb close to IDF troops.
Troops also detained two would-be suicide bombers. One was arrested in Nablus and the second in the adjacent village of Assira Shimaliya.
The raid comes hours before Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is set to deliver a much-anticipated speech in Herzilya, in which he is expected to detail the unilateral measures he is preparing to take in the event of the collapse of the internationally-brokered road map peace plan.
David Baker, an official at the Prime Minister's Office said Thursday that the operation was launched to prevent more attacks on civilians.
"Nablus has become a hub of terror activity," Baker told Haaretz. "Since early October after the suicide bombing at Maxim restaurant [in Haifa], Israel has prevented 13 suicide attacks against civilians inside Israel and five in the West Bank, which had originated in Nablus. The IDF search and arrest operation overnight was geared to prevent further attacks on the citizens of Israel."
IDF paratroopers have been operating in the casbah and the nearby Balata refugee camp over the past couple of days, following intelligence that militants in the area were planning suicide bombings, an IDF commander told Army Radio on Thursday.
The fighting overnight was some of the fiercest in weeks in the West Bank, where IDF troops encircle most major Palestinian towns and cities.
Troops were focusing on a cell from Tanzim, an armed faction of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, which has been involved in recent attempts to send suicide bombers into Israel.
"The Israeli forces identified an armed man on a rooftop. Firing erupted. Two more armed men joined the fighting. The troops returned fire. The three were killed," an IDF spokesman said. He said three automatic rifles were found with the gunmen.
Earlier in the fighting, an armed Islamic Jihad member was shot dead as he tried to plant a bomb hidden in a plastic bag in a alleyway where IDF soldiers were operating, the military and Palestinian sources said.
An IDF commander in Nablus said forces also captured a would-be suicide bomber who was apparently planning to make his way to Israel on Thursday.
Palestinian sources identified one of the Palestinians killed in the raid as Aladin Da'awiyeh, 25, an unarmed bakery worker, and said that another Palestinian man was wounded, Israel Radio reported
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