Israeli troops yesterday raised the level of violence in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip. According to Palestinian security sources, yesterday afternoon
Israeli Special Forces, dressed in women's clothes entered the Palestinian
town of Salfeet. Upon reaching the center of town they opened fire on 23
year old Badr Abdel Raouf Yassin, killing him. Assassinations have been used
by the Israeli governemtn and military throughout the intifada in order to
provoke a Palesitnain response when the situation could be described as
relatively calm. Yassin was the 207 victim of the Israeli policy of
extra-judicial executions, which are illegal under international law; 87 of
the victims were not the "targets" of the attack, and 25 of them were
children.

Israeli soldiers also attacked and killed a Palestinian youth in the Sheikh
Ajleen region to the south of Gaza city. 17 year old Taleb Jumaa Badreya
Shamalkh, was working in his fields when Israeli soldiers from the near by
settlement of Netzarim opened fire on him, shooting him in the stomach with
live ammunition. In a similar event last week Israeli soldiers defending a
settlement shot and killed 16 year old Muhammad Tafish was while he and
friends were out collecting birds. The fact that these types of incidences
are so rarely investigated by the Israeli military means that Israeli
soldiers act with impunity - making these types of killings all too common.
In Nablus Israeli troops arrested four Palestinians and then dynamited the
house from which they were taken. A house was destroyed in Salem village
near Nablus, after troops arrested one man and evacuated the other
inhabitants. Unarmed confrontations broke out as the troops were
withdrawing - youths began to throw stones and the soldiers opened fire on
them, injuring at least three Palestinians, one with live ammunition to his
abdomen.

In the Issaweih suburb of Jerusalem, Israeli police and border police
oversaw the demolishing of four Palestinian homes. Due to a strike in the
Jerusalem municipality special personnel were hired to destroy the houses,
which were home to 33 people. Residents said that they had tried
unsuccessfully to get permission for the building of the houses. According
to residents the people from Issaweih own approximately 3,000 dunums of land
in the area, but the Israeli authorities permit them to build on only 606
dunums. Serious overcrowding threatens the community which is not permitted
to expand to accommodate natural growth. The area, which is between the
Jerusalem settlement of Ma'ele Adumin and Jerusalem, has had many houses
destroyed in the past; three years ago 36 homes were demolished, and already
this year 25 Palestinian homes in Jerusalem have been demolished adding to
the hundreds of Palestinian homes that have been demolished throughout the
West Bank and Gaza Strip.


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