Posted on 11/07/2003 10:09:27 AM PST by yonif
Israel Defense Forces troops operating in the West Bank city of Jenin on Friday captured senior Islamic Jihad militant Amjad Abeidi, who planned the suicide bombing at a Haifa restaurant last month in which 21 people were killed.
Abeidi is responsible for dispatching a number of suicide bombers to carry out attacks in Israel, including Hanadi Jaradat, who blew herself up in Haifa's Maxim restaurant.
The soldiers located the complex in which Abeidi was hiding, and searched it. Several hours later they found a weapons stockpile hidden under one of the houses. After the soldiers threw a grenade into the stockpile, Abeidi handed himself over, lightly wounded. He was transferred to the Shin Bet security service for interrogation.
Five Palestinians were killed by IDF gunfire in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Friday. Muhammed al-Mashash, 23, was killed by IDF gunfire in the Balata refugee camp, in the West Bank city of Nablus. According to IDF sources, shots were fired at troops in the camp, and three explosive devices were hurled at them. The IDF source said that soldiers fired at an individual who hurled the explosive devices.
Earlier in the day, IDF soldiers killed a 10-year-old Palestinian boy and three militants in the Gaza Strip.
The deaths came as Israel opened a key checkpoint close to the West Bank city of Ramallah, following a meeting between Israeli and Palestinian security officials in the area.
The move was the first steps toward putting into motion a promised easing of restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank.
The boy was killed by a shell fired by an IDF tank in the Gaza Strip near Kibbutz Nahal Oz. A witness and medics said the boy had been hunting for birds with a net and string, but an IDF source said soldiers opened fire at suspicious figures handling an electric cable in an area where explosives are often planted against troops. The IDF added that one Palestinian was hit while two others fled.
Earlier in the day, three other Palestinians were killed in clashes in the Gaza Strip. The IDF Southern Command said that three had been involved in terrorist activity.
In the central Gaza Strip, soldiers from the Givati Brigade backed up by tanks, laid in wait on the outskirts of the Al-Muazi refugee camp for a terrorist cell which has been setting explosive devices in the area and firing mortars at the settlement of Kfar Darom.
Military sources said that the troops opened fire on five armed Palestinians as they were trying to lay an explosive device on the road leading to the camp. Two of the Palestinians were killed in the incident, during which they set off an explosive device weighing some 100 kilos. No soldiers were injured.
In the southern Strip, IDF troops shot dead at least one Palestinian they said was laying explosive devices near the security fence east of the town of Khan Yunis.
Palestinians also said a man was shot dead by IDF troops during an exchange of fire early Friday, when soldiers entered a house in the Al-Musader neighborhood of Gaza City. The IDF said that it had no knowledge of the incident.
An option all those killed by this Abeidi devil did not have!
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