The Gaza Update

Israeli forces killed six Palestinians, five from the same family and wounded at least ten in a military invasion near Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Thursday before dawn, Palestinian medical sources reported. Sources at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis identified the dead to be, Adel 40, Suhayb 13, Abdel Rahman 25, Salah 25 and Na'el Qdeih 22. Apparently, Israeli troops entered the house, killed two and took the other three with them and killed them later.

The medical source said, Adel and his 13-year-old son Suhayb received fatal bullets in the head. Whereas the other three were killed and their bodies were found in one of the streets of the near by al-Faraheen village. Apparently the air strike targeted both Salah and Na’el Qdeih, members of the Qassam Brigade, the armed wing of Hamas.Eyewitnesses reported that a large number of Israeli tanks and military vehicles invaded Khuza’a village under cover of Apache helicopters and reconnaissance drones that fired heavily from above.

Palestinian security sources indicated that Israeli bulldozers and tanks began bulldozing vast areas of agricultural land while others raided and searched houses and opened random fire in residential areas. Children and many other residents went into a general state of panic. Several residents were wounded by missiles shrapnel and random fire, some of them seriously. Mohamed Ramadan Baraka, 18, died of wounds he sustained during the Israeli army invasion into the eastern areas of Khan Younis in the southern part of the Gaza strip, on Thursday, at dawn. Medical sources stated that Baraka died of wounds to the chest; raising the death toll in Khan Younis, since the morning, to six.

Israeli troops continued their military offensive in Al Faraheen area, Local sources reported that the army is detaining and questioning residents aged between 15 and 45. The army also occupied houses and turned them to army shoot out posts, imprisoning the families inside their homes. Abd Al Majeed Shakshak, 30, Palestinian Authority secret police officer was shot and killed by unknown gunmen on Thursday afternoon in Gaza. Shakshak was shot while leaving his house in Al Shikh Radwan area north of Gaza, he was moved to Al Shifa hospital in Gaza and died their due to multiple wounds in the chest, no Palestinian group have yet clamed the attack.


The West Bank Update

Israeli troops attacked several areas in Hebron district south of the West Bank and took five residents prisoners on Thursday morning. In Dora village, south of the city of Hebron, troops took two prisoners; known as Kamel Nassar, 21, and Kamal Amro, 50, the latter reported as a leader in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Meanwhile, Mohamed Yakop, 25, was also taken prisoner after being stopped by troops at a military checkpoint south of Hebron. Yakop's Father said that his son is student in Al Polytechnic University in Hebron and has been wanted by the army for some time. In Al Arkop refugee camp near the city of Hebron, troops attacked, searched and ransacked residents' houses and took Ahmad Abu Khiran, 18, to unknown location. Mossa Shaded, 25, a resident of Kharsa village, west of Hebron city, was taken prisoner at the Israeli border between Jordan and the West Bank whilst returning from Syria, where he studies in the University, local sources reported.

A senior member of the Al Aqsa Brigades, the armed wing of Fateh, said that his group took part in an operation that freed an American citizen captured by a group that called itself “Ansar Al Sunna”. Michael Philips, 24, from the United States was held by the group for 24-hours. Philips was found tied in an apartment in Nablus, a senior member of the brigades said. The member added that one of the kidnappers agreed to reveal the location of Philips for a guarantee that he would not be harmed.
The member added that the kidnappers are related to a new group in Gaza, but did not disclose the name of the group.

Also In Nablus in Thursday, The Israeli army invaded the West Bank city of Nablus late on Wednesday night, following which clashes erupted as groups of local resistance fighters tried to halt the invasion. Local sources reported that the clashes continued almost throughout the entire night Al Aqsa brigades, the armed wing of Fatah, took responsibility for targeting an Israeli military convey with road side bombs, damaging one army vehicle, according to a press release issued by the fighters. The army presence in Nablus remained until Thursday morning, by which time the army had attacked numerous houses, ransacked residents' belongings and taken two prisoners from Nablus and a nearby refugee camp just out side the city.

Mu'aiad Thweb, 26, was taken prisoner by Israeli troops during a pre dawn invasion to the village of Za'tra, south east of the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Thursday. Soldiers and jeeps stormed the village, surrounded Thweb's houses, searched and ransacked it, then took him to an unknown location, his family reported.

Conclusion

Thank you for joining us from Occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today from the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org brought to you by Imogen Kimber & Ghassan Bannoura.