Two Palestinians killed, officer hurt in West Bank arrest raids

An elderly Palestinian woman was reported killed and a Border Police officer was wounded during an Israel Defense Forces arrest raid in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Friday morning during an Israel Defense Forces arrest raid. During a raid at the Balata refugee camp near Nablus, an Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades millitant was killed and another was injured.

The woman, 65, was caught in a crossfire between militants holed up in a house and IDF soldiers surrounding the building, Palestinian witnesses said. Two other residents were wounded, they said.

The IDF said forces were operating in Bethlehem, but provided no other details.

The Border Police officer was lightly to moderately wounded by a shell fragment that hit his face and was taken to Jerusalem's Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem.

Also Friday, Israel Defense Forces troops fatally shot a top Fatah militant in the West Bank who was apparently planning to detonate a car bomb.

IDF troops opened fire on two Palestinian men pulling barbed wire into a car at the Balata refugee camp near Nablus, killing one and wounding the other. The car was later found filled with tens of kilograms of explosives.

The militant was identified as 15-year-old Ibrahim Sanakra, brother of Alaa Sanakra, the Nablus leader of the Fatah-linked Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

Hamas minister arrestedIsrael arrested Palestinian Minister Abdel Rahman Zaidan, a Hamas official, at his home in the West Bank city of Ramallah before dawn Friday, Israel Radio quoted Israeli and Palestinian sources as saying.

According to the report, Zaidan, the minister of housing and public works, is the 10th Palestinian minister to be arrested since Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was abducted in June.

	Palestinians gathering around a car that was destroyed during an IDF operation in Nablus on Friday. (AP)