Sixteen people â 10 Palestinians and six Israelis â were killed in the new spasm of Middle East violence yesterday that plunged the region into deeper crisis. An Israeli helicopter fired a missile at an office of Hamas movement in the Gaza Stripâs Jabalya refugee camp, killing two activists and wounding several schoolchildren, following airstrikes in Gaza and the West Bank overnight. In the West Bankâs Jordan Valley, a Palestinian activist blew himself up at the entrance to the Jewish settlement of Mehola, killing himself but causing no other casualties, security sources said. Hospital sources in the town of Khan Younis in southern Gaza said a 14-year-old girl, Mouna, a 37-year-old woman, Miriam Al-Bahaifa and a 19-year-old man, Abdel El-Wahad Al-Najar, were killed when tank shells smashed their homes overnight. Troops also shot dead two Palestinians, at least one of whom was armed, near Jewish settlements in southern Gaza overnight, and killed another two Palestinians during a gunfight early yesterday near Nablus in the West Bank, hospital officials said.
In a late-night incident, six Israelis were killed in an attack on an army checkpoint in the West Bank, Israeli security sources said. Israeli security sources said the Israelis were ambushed at Ein Ariq, northwest of the Palestinian-ruled city of Ramallah. Four Qassam rockets, fired by Hamas, landed inside Israel in an empty field across the border from the Gaza Strip, Israeli public radio reported yesterday. Meanwhile, the United States yesterday said the proposal by Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, was âsignificant and positive.â But, at the same time it said the proposal had to be looked at in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 
|
