Two Palestinian teens shot dead in Nablus camp raid

The two youngsters, identified as Ibrahim al-Sheikh Ali and Mohammed Natour, both of them aged 17, died after being hit in the neck by live bullets, they said.

Earlier Sunday, another two stonethrowers were lightly injured when troops opened fire towards them with rubber bullets during a massive army operation which began before dawn, medical and security sources said.

A third man, said to be a civilian, was hit in the leg by live bullets and was being evacuated in an ambulance when troops moved in to arrest him, they added.

Security officials said around 50 jeeps and two bulldozers backed by two helicopters converged on the camp at around 2:00 am (0000 GMT), sealing off all the major entrances.

A curfew was imposed and troops began conducting house-to-house searches.

Aside from the injured man, another three Palestinians were also arrested, including a local leader of the radical Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades called Ahmed Abu Ras.

Following Abu Ras' arrest, a bulldozer partially destroyed the house where he had been caught.

The bloodshed came just hours after two Palestinian militants were killed in an Israeli air raid on the Gaza Strip.

The lastest violence raised the overall toll since the September 2000 start of the Palestinian uprising to 4,959, according to an AFP count. The majority have been Palestinian

A spokeswoman for the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM) they had seen troops taking over a United Nations girls' school inside the camp.

"They entered the school with electricity generators, water and tents," Netta Golan told AFP.

The Israeli army confirmed that an "ongoing arrest operation" was underway, but said only one person had been arrested so far.

The spokesman had no immediate information about the fatal shootings.

"Massive riots have broken out in the area, with Palestinians throwing stones and Molotov cocktails. Troops have responded with rubber bullets, smoke grenades and other riot-control methods," he said.

Source

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.