Palestine Today 120607

Thursday December 06, 2007 18:37 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC - Audio Dept.

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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org, for Thursday, December 6th, 2007.

Death toll reaches 16 today in Gaza, and in the West Bank the army kills one resistance fighter and injures another, these stories and more coming up stay tuned.

The Gaza strip

One Palestinian was killed when Israeli military forces opened heavy random fire on a group of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip city of Jabalia on Thursday morning. Medical sources named the man as Majed Mater, 34. In a separate operation, Israeli military forces shelled two targets- in Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Sources reported that the Israeli military targeted a group of civilians east of Beit Lahiya with a rocket, no injuries were reported. Elsewhere, the Israeli military shelled an area at the southern entrance of Beit Hanoun. Ambulances rushed to the area to evacuate casualties, but so far no information has been obtained regarding the scale of the damages.

Medical sources in the Gaza strip reported on Thursday that during the latest attacks, the Israeli army has used weapons which are deemed illegal by international law. Medics at various Gazan hospitals have reported that the tank shells and missiles used by the Israeli army in these attacks were not the type which are traditionally used and they are designed to cause more severe injuries. In Gaza in the meantime the death toll from Israeli attacks since last Saturday now stands at 16.

The West Bank

Palestinian sources reported that the Israeli army invaded the northern West Bank city of Jenin and the nearby Jenin refugee camp on Thursday morning, injuring one Palestinian. Local sources reported that Israeli forces surrounded a house belonging to an Islamic Jihad resistance fighter. Troops invaded the house and opened fire, injuring the man.

The sources added that the injured man managed to escape after sustaining light wounds. They did not reveal the name of the fighter.

On Wednesday evening an undercover Israeli force assassinated a Palestinian security officer in the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem. They claimed the man was on an army wanted list.

Palestinian sources in the southern West Bank city of Hebron reported that Israeli military forces attacked the city and several nearby towns. They searched homes and kidnapped one civilian. On Thursday at dawn, troops invaded the village of Kharsa, located south of Hebron and soldiers conducted house to house searches in the village. Hamad Al Kik was then abducted from his home and taken to an unknown location.

Military forces also attacked two coffee shops and several houses in the town of Al Thahrya near Hebron. Local sources said Troops forced families out of their homes during the search. Meanwhile the army stormed several houses in the old part of Hebron city. Soldiers forced families out of their homes and eyewitnesses reported that troops abused and assaulted local men during the search campaign.

Conclusion

Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today from the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, brought to you by Louisa white and Ghassan Bannoura.

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