Partial withdrawal for Israeli forces, 8 Palestinians killed by Israel
The Israeli occupation forces took positions in the surrounding of the Palestinian cities and tightened the military siege, while the US delegate Anthony Zinni started his contacts amid Palestinian and international calls for an actual Israeli pullout from all occupied Arab territories and halting operations of siege and incursion so as to resume the negotiations.
News reports said that the Israeli forces continued their siege of the Palestinian areas, especially the cities of Qalqilya, Bethlehem, Beit Jala, and Nablus and the Israeli tanks were repositioned outside the city of Ramullah. The chairman of the Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat said that what was called pullout from Ramullah is a "deception " and that Ariel Sharon left no chance to achieve peace. In the surrounding of Ramullah, two Palestinians were killed in an explosion in their car in a crime bearing the Israeli imprints. No details were mentioned about this crime. In al-Breij camp in Gaza, five Palestinians were killed. They are one mother and four children when a land mine implanted by the Israeli forces went off in the carriage pulled by a donkey.
The director of Deir al-Balah hospital Ahmad Rabah said that the "five martyrs are one woman and her two children from al-Awadeh family and the other two children from Abu Khouseh family."
The Israeli forces incurred into the east of Rafah and as a result the Palestinian police man Ismael Abu Taha was killed after he was hit by fire bullets in his chest, while the Israeli bulldozers demolished a building for the Palestinian authority and several houses in the area. One newly born infant died after the Israeli forces prevented an ambulance carrying him with his mother at a check point near Natsareim settlement. The Palestinian youth Mousa al-Akhras was killed by the Israeli forces while he was in front of his house in Rafah while the people of Beit Lahia received the corpse of Kamal Abdul Naser who was killed by bullets near Doughit settlement.
In this regard, the Israeli occupation forces warned the owners of several houses in al-Mighraqa area to occupy their houses in order to demolish them after these forces on Thursday demolished and leveled lands surrounding the area.
In retaliation to the Israeli aggression the Palestinian Intifada youth attacked on Friday by machine guns and bombs a position for the Israeli occupation forces near Rafah and other Palestinians attacked Israeli military positions in the Gheilo quarters in Jerusalem and a patrol for the Israeli forces near Sanjal village, Ramullah district.
The Israeli radio admitted that four of its soldiers were gravely wounded after their tank was involved in a collision near Everat settlement in Bethlehem.