Five Israelis were killed, 30 wounded in a Palestinian operation in al-Khudeira
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 1/18/2002

Five Israeli settlers were killed and other 30 wounded in an attack targeted a night club in al-Khudeira city to the north of Tel Aviv on Thursday evening.

News reports quoted a source in the Israeli police as saying that one Palestinian opened fire from an automatic weapon and threw to bombs or more in a dancing hall before he was killed.

The source said that the executor of the operation had a belt of explosives which did not explode, noting that it was the first operation in Israel since the call addressed on December 16, 2001, by the chairman of the Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat to halt the operations against the Israelis.

On late Thursday evening the al-Aqsa martyrs group of the Fatah movement claimed responsibility over this operation which was carried out by one resistance man in al-Khudeira and resulted in killing five settlers and wounding other 30. Al-Aqsa martyrs group said that it will publish a statement about this operation later.

The attack took place near another place where the Palestinians carried out in October 2001 an operation during which 4 Israelis were killed and other tens wounded.

Meantime, the Israeli occupation forces on Thursday broke into Shoufa village in Toulkarem and considered al-Jalaboun village of Jenin district as a close military area.

Meanwhile, an Israeli military force had kidnapped a Palestinian intelligence officer Ali Darwish in Bethlehem and Khamis Ahmad Ali from Nablus was killed by the Israeli army bullets. The Israeli deputy army chief of staff Maj. Moshe Ba'aloun threatened to re-occupy the Palestinian cities.

For its part, Jerusalem's municipality decided to build a new settlement quarters in Beit Hanania to the east of Jerusalem.

During his meeting with a US Senate delegation, the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon renewed his government's rejection to convene a joint Palestinian- Israeli security meeting and set as a precondition for that the Palestinian authority to arrest the Palestinians responsible for the alleged weapons ship. Sharon's statements are in contradiction with what stated by the chairman of the Israeli Knesser Abraham Bourg on an agreement with the chairman of the Palestinian legislative council Ahmad Qrei' aiming at what he called a new mechanism for a dialogue.

The Israeli radio said that Bourg said he will meet next week in Paris with Qrei' to define date for convening the meetings and the place of convening it, noting that the headquarters of the Palestinian council in Ramullah will be one of the places for the meetings.

Previous Stories:
  Israeli forces break into Nahhalin, Sharon threatens more repression acts   (1/17/2002)
  Arafat: Palestinians stick to peace despite pessimism   (1/16/2002)
  Ha'aretz: Israel's destruction of Palestinian houses is war crime   (1/16/2002)

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