Five Palestinian civilians were wounded including a child in critical condition
Palestine-Israel, Military, 6/25/2003

Five Palestinian civilians were wounded including a child in critical condition Monday evening when Israeli occupation forces broke into Nour Shams refugee camp, eastern Tulkarim City, official news said.

Yesterday, the Israeli forces, backed by helicopters, launched a wide campaign of arrests, detaining more than two hundred Palestinian citizens in the West Bank city of Hebron, the Palestinian government said.
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The PNA report said: "At 00:30, Israeli soldiers, border guard squads and special forces stormed tens of houses and launched a campaign of arrests. They began house-to- house searching and detained Palestinian old men and young citizens," eyewitness, Ali Abu Snaineh told IPC correspondent. adding "It was a horrible night, they used explosive devices. Helicopters were hovering very low while Israeli soldiers began destroying properties. They began smashing doors and windows, our children were so afraid. The Israeli soldiers forced tens of citizens to gather in yards and arrested them," witnesses said.
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"Israeli soldiers stormed my house, my children were shocked when they saw dogs near their cradles. They smashed the windows and cursed the women with vulgar vocabulary. It was unendurable," Mahmood Amr said. Tens of civilians were seen handcuffed and blindfolded in different neighborhoods of the city, while the crying of the children and women broke the silence of the darkness, IPC's at Hebron said.
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The campaign of arrests focused on the houses of the martyrs' families. One woman was among tens of citizens who were arrested this night, Palestinian Detainees Association (PDA), said

Meantime a PNA report said: The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) reconfirmed that the withdrawal of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) from the Gaza Strip and Bethlehem-- as a first step towards a full Israeli withdrawal from reoccupied Palestinian territory-- "must be completed without hurdles and preconditions and in a way that secures full Palestinian security control" in both areas, an report on the PNA said.

The full IOF withdrawal should also be accompanied by "a complete stop to all forms of (Israeli military) aggression, including the assassination" of Palestinian activists, the PLO executive committee said in a statement reported by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA on Monday, following a meeting chaired by President Yasser Arafat at his battered headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The PLO said that the Israeli policy of assassinations and arrests aims at obstructing the implementation of the "roadmap" and "sabotaging by bloody provocation the Palestine National Authority's (PNA) efforts to lead the national dialogue to a successful conclusion."

"The PLO condemns the (Israeli) ongoing policy of assassinations and arrests," which "confirms the plans of (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon's government to obstruct the implementation of the roadmap and its insistence on 14 points to change it," the statement said.

Israeli and Palestinian security officials on Monday met again to discuss a phased handover of security control in some reoccupied areas.

Palestinian Minister of State for Security Affairs Mohammad Dahlan and Gaza public security chief Abdelrazeq al-Majeida took part in a meeting with the Israeli coordinator of the IOF activities in the occupied territory General Amos Gilad at Biet Hanoun (Erez) crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Israel.

No official statement was released after the meeting, but a Palestinian official said the meeting was "serious," adding that the Palestinian side was now waiting for Israeli answers to its demands

Previous Stories:
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  People, Democratic fronts for the liberation of Palestine reject truce; Hamas, Islamic Jihad study it   (6/20/2003)
  One Palestinian killed, four houses demolished; Qassam missile hit settlement   (6/19/2003)
  Israel denies Palestinian reports on possibility of releasing Barghouthi shortly   (6/18/2003)

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