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Israel Arrests 5 From Hamas Terror Cell as West Bank Clashes Continue Israel Says 5 from Hamas Confess in Israeli Couple’s Killing
(about 3 hours later)
JERUSALEM — The Israeli authorities announced Monday night that they had apprehended a group of Palestinian militants affiliated with Hamas who admitted responsibility for the fatal shooting last week of an Israeli couple in front of their four children in the occupied West Bank. JERUSALEM — The Israeli authorities announced Monday that five Palestinian members of the militant group Hamas had confessed to fatally shooting an Israeli couple in front of their four children last week, as the intensifying violence that that attack touched off stretched into a fifth day, with Israeli forces fatally shooting two Palestinian teenagers one 13.
“We will act with a very harsh hand against terror and also against incitement,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said in a nationally televised statement praising the security forces for capturing five members of the Hamas cell. “The police is entering deep into the Arab neighborhoods in a way that has never been done before,” he added. “We will not give any rioter or any inciter immunity in any place, and so there are no limitations of the actions of the defense forces.” “We will act with a very harsh hand against terror and also against incitement,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said in a televised statement praising the arrest of the Hamas members. “We will not give any rioter or any inciter immunity in any place, and so there are no limitations of the actions of the defense forces.”
The arrests of members of the Hamas cell came on a day of continued violence across the West Bank, with Israeli forces killing two Palestinian youths one just 13 during clashes earlier in the day. Both Mr. Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority convened emergency meetings Monday night to discuss the deteriorating security situation. Neither the Israeli crackdown nor the Palestinian uprising showed signs of abating: The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported some 500 injuries in recent days as clashes raged. Pathways through the West Bank and East Jerusalem were cut off by new Israeli roadblocks, as well as by burning tires and stones hurled by Palestinian youths.
The Palestinian Red Crescent society reported that more than 500 Palestinians had been injured over the last few days as four additional battalions of Israeli soldiers swarmed the West Bank and thousands of police officers patrolled East Jerusalem. New roadblocks slowed traffic as did burning tires hurled by angry Palestinians in what people on both sides have called a third intifada. Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, reported that Mr. Abbas told members of his military council and leaders of his security apparatuses to be wary of Israeli efforts to inflame the situation and drag the region into a new cycle of violence. Earlier, Ahmed Majdalani, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee, said on Voice of Palestine radio, “Israel is continuing with its escalation based on the rule saying what cannot be taken by force will be achieved with more force.”
“Israel wants to drag us into violence to portray us as a terrorist people so Netanyahu can say he is fighting terrorism,” Ahmad Majdalani, member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee, told Voice of Palestine radio. “Israel is continuing with its escalation based on the rule saying what cannot be taken by force will be achieved with more force.” Four Israelis and four Palestinians have been killed in the last five days, the latest being Abdulrahman Obeidallah, 13, a resident of the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, where Palestinian youths threw rocks at an Israeli base Monday afternoon. Two witnesses said the boy was not involved in the rioting, but standing outside a community center where he frequently went after school.
“I’m not sure if we are talking about an Intifada like the two previous ones,” Mr. Majdalani added. “Each stage has its own conditions, so this might be a different kind of Intifada.” “Abdulrahman is innocent and was shot in cold blood,” said Ahed Amira, 19, a university student who volunteers at the center and said the boy had been standing outside “with his school uniform still on and his school bag on his back.”
Israel’s Government Press Office said the authorities had detained five people affiliated with the militant Islamist group Hamas who the government says are responsible for killing Rabbi Eitam Henkin and his wife, Naama, as they drove between West Bank settlements Thursday night. A classmate, Osaid Mohammad Abu Srour, also 13, said he heard two shots fired and “Abdulrahman fell down right next to me, and when I looked down at him, blood had filled his entire shirt.”
A statement from the press office identified the gunman as Yehye Muhammad Naif Abdallah Haj Hamed, who was born in 1991 and who the government says participated in other attacks against Israelis. He was accompanied by Kerem Lutfy Fathi, born in 1982, who was armed with a pistol that he dropped when he was accidentally wounded during the attack. The recovered pistol helped lead the authorities to the suspects, the statement said. “None of us were throwing stones. We were just watching the other kids throw rocks at the army base,” Osaid said. “I guess that is what we get for being Palestinian and under occupation. I am just very lucky and thankful to God that the bullet didn’t hit me instead.”
The government statement also said the authorities had captured Raeb Ahmed Muhammad Alivi, the commander who “recruited the members of the cell, instructed them and provided them with weapons,” even though he was not in the car with the alleged gunmen at the time of the attack. Earlier Monday, Israeli forces fatally shot Huthayfa Soliman, 18, in the stomach, according to a Palestinian medic, at a checkpoint near the northern West Bank city of Tulkarm. The Israeli military said he and others had thrown firebombs, firecrackers and rocks at Israeli soldiers.
“Cell members said that on the evening of the attack, two of them traveled on the route and selected the point from which they would open fire,” the statement said. “Afterwards they collected the other members, one of which checked the route. Upon hearing that the route was clear, the cell set out, identified the Henkins’ vehicle and opened fire. After the Henkins’ vehicle stopped, two cell members left their vehicle and fired again from very close range.” Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, said that the shootings in Tulkarm and Aida would be investigated and that coordination with Palestinian security forces was “ongoing.”
The two Palestinian teenagers who were killed on Monday died as Israeli forces clashed with Palestinians near checkpoints and military watchtowers in the West Bank. He said the four additional battalions deployed in the West Bank after Thursday night’s fatal shooting of the Israeli couple, Eitam and Naama Henkin, would remain in place “to contain potential hot spots and arrest people who could plan or carry out attacks.”
It was not immediately clear whether one of the teenagers, identified by a medic as Abdul-Rahman Obeidallah, 13, had been involved in fighting in Bethlehem, where the military reported that a riot broke out when Palestinian youths threw rocks at members of the Israel Defense Forces and the Border Patrol force. According to Army Radio, the military was investigating the fatality. Colonel Lerner added that soldiers had not seen “a substantial increase in the volume of participation” in Palestinian protests, but did “see more and more attempts to confront forces and a higher level of violence toward those forces and to civilians,” with firebombs and other weapons.
Those clashes on Monday came after Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian teenager, identified as Huthayfa Soliman, 18, as he and others threw firebombs, firecrackers and rocks during clashes at a checkpoint near Tulkarm, in the northern West Bank, according to the Israeli military. The main checkpoint from Ramallah to Jerusalem was clogged Monday as the military was more aggressive than usual, and an alternative exit was shut down by masked Palestinians who set up blazing barricades of tires and threw rocks and firebombs at soldiers. Palestinian drivers detoured to a twisty route through rural villages, where dark plumes hovered over a hill near an Israeli settlement, where another demonstration unfolded.
Faisal Salameh, a Palestinian medic, said Mr. Soliman was shot in the stomach and died in a hospital, and that the Palestine Red Crescent Society, fearing more violence in the days to come, had raised its emergency-status level. In East Jerusalem, relatives of Nizar Qutri, 25, said he had been shot in the chest, apparently by Israeli civilians, and rushed to Maqasid Hospital, where a doctor later said his condition was stable. A clash erupted outside the hospital near midnight: Palestinians set an Israeli jeep aflame, and soldiers sprayed the gathering crowd with skunk water.
The largest demonstration on Monday occurred close to an Israeli checkpoint that is near a Jewish settlement on the outskirts of Ramallah. Israel’s Army Radio also reported that hundreds of Palestinian citizens of Israel staged protests in five Israeli cities under the banner “the third intifada has started.”
The Palestinian police did not allow the protesters, mostly teenagers, to reach the Israeli checkpoint, and they responded by walking up a nearby hill to throw rocks and firebombs at the soldiers, running to a nearby gas station to keep filling their bottles. Israel’s security forces said the five Nablus men arrested in the Henkin murders had also been responsible for three other recent shootings in the West Bank. A news release said the cell had scouted the location earlier Thursday, and shot the couple from a vehicle first, then exited “and fired again from very close range.”
They also set fire to tires, blocking roads for Palestinian traffic. Heavy plumes of black smoke were seen on a nearby road, where it appeared that protesters were also burning tires. One of the gunmen was accidentally shot in the hand during the attack and dropped his pistol, the authorities said. That weapon, and other forensic evidence, helped lead the authorities to the wounded gunman, who was being treated at a Nablus hospital.
There were also escalating tensions and confrontations around the contested Old City compound that houses Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Palestinians widely fear that Israeli leaders plan to divide the site, revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. Palestinian leaders and advocates contrasted the swiftness of the arrests in the Henkin case with the failure, so far, to bring to justice the Jewish extremists who firebombed a home in the West Bank village of Duma on July 31, killing a Palestinian child and his parents.
Palestinian leaders, including the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, have openly accused Israeli leaders of planning to do just that; Prime Minister Netanyahu has repeatedly denied the allegations and accused Palestinian leaders of seeking to incite violence. Mr. Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders had branded that attack terrorism and promised to vigilantly pursue those responsible, but no arrests have been announced. Israel has imposed a gag order on the investigation.
Also on Monday, the Israeli authorities continued the unusual measure of barring most of Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents from entering the Old City. Israel’s defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, was quoted last month as saying “we have assessments of who carried out the attacks,” but would not say clearly if anyone was in custody. Three Jewish zealots suspected of being involved in a shadowy network and previous arson attacks have been held since shortly after the Duma attack under administrative detention without formal charges.
Only Israeli citizens, tourists and Palestinians who live, work or study in the Old City were granted access, along with some Palestinians who were headed to Al Aqsa Mosque for worship, but men under 50 were temporarily barred from praying there. Asked about the discrepancy in the pace of the Henkin and Duma cases, a senior Israeli security official said Monday night that the two “could not be compared.”
Evidence at the scene of the Henkin shooting and other elements led to the speedy capture of the Henkin killers, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with his agency’s regulations; the Duma arson, he said, required “a different, more complex type of work.”