Israeli Army Confirms Four-Hour Incursion into RamallahThe Israeli army has confirmed that it launched an operation into the West Bank city of Ramallah in the early hours of Sunday morning.An Israeli army spokeswoman said Sunday that the four-hour-long operation involved Israeli ground forces and Israel Air Force's helicopter gunships. During the incursion into Palestinian controlled areas, southwest of Ramallah, heavy fire-exchange took place between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian security forces and gunmen. A Palestinian intelligence officer was killed and 12 others injured, according to Palestinian sources. The spokeswoman asserted that the operation was in response to the shooting attack Saturday evening on a major road between the Jerusalem neighborhoods of French Hill and Ramot, in which one Israeli was killed and another injured. She added that Israeli soldiers also destroyed a building of Force 17, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's elite guard force, in Ramallah and "made a few arrests" related to the shooting attack. Israel Radio reported that the Israeli army tried to take control of Palestinian radio and television buildings in the area but failed. But the Israeli army spokeswoman denied it. There were also unconfirmed reports that several Israeli tanks penetrated all the way to the Palestinian Legislative Council building, a symbol of Palestinian autonomy. But the spokeswoman did not confirm it either. The Israeli army withdrew fully from the Ramallah area later, the spokeswoman said. Elsewhere in the West Bank, a Palestinian ambulance driver was killed and six others injured by Israel's shelling of the Beit Sahour area near the West Bank city of Bethlehem. Israel claimed that the shelling was in response to a Palestinian attack against the Jewish settlement of Har Homa nearby. Near the West Bank city of Nablus, three Jewish settlers were wounded by a car bomb, which Israel suspected was planted by Palestinians. The violence between the two sides has rocked the region for nearly a year, during which over 700 people have been killed, most of them Palestinians. Since the terror attacks on the United States last Tuesday, the Israeli army has stepped up its operation against Palestinian areas. Israeli solders had invaded the West Bank cities of Jenin and Jericho and stayed there for days. On Sunday, the Israeli army launched a large-scale attack against the Gaza Strip. |
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