Israel captures Hamas-led West bank cell

The Israeli Army captured Thursday in Nablus, West Bank, a terrorist cell planning suicide bombing attack in Israel. The defense establishment is also concerned about another Hamas cell, in the West Bank city of Qalqilyah, that is believed to be planning major attacks inside Israel as well. Israel captures Hamas-led West bank cell Four members of the cell, which includes militants from both Hamas and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), were apprehended - including the intended suicide bomber. The IDF said a total of 35 Palestinians were arrested in the course of the operation. Meanwhile, health officials and witnesses in the Gaza Strip said IDF troops operating against rocket squads in the Gaza Strip on Thursday killed a Palestinian teenager who was hit by shrapnel from a tank shell, then run over by an army bulldozer. Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Health Ministry in Gaza identified the youth as 17-year-old Mahmoud Kassassi. It was not immediately clear if he was armed. The IDF had no immediate comment on the incident, which took place during an incursion into central Gaza. Hamas security forces said dozens of jeeps, tanks and bulldozers had moved about 1.5 kilometers into the Strip. During the Nablus raid, residents of Nablus complained that they were running out of food. A military spokesman said the army is allowing food, medicine and ambulances into the Ein Beit Ilma refugee camp. But with a tight curfew clamped on the camp since Tuesday, some of the 5,000 residents said they couldn't leave their homes to buy food. In Nablus, Hussam Hamdan, 30, said troops had confined him in a house along with some 70 other people, and they were subsisting on depleting stores of bread and olives. "There is no food in this house we are in," Hamdan said. Lara Kanan, 23, said water was running out in some houses because rooftop water tanks had been hit by bullets. The food shortages were especially painful coming during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when observant Muslims fast during the day, then break the fast at night with a celebratory meal known as iftar. On Thursday, troops fired rubber-coated bullets to disperse a protest by residents calling for an end to the raid, residents said. Hospital officials said 14 people have been wounded by rubber bullets since Wednesday. Two Palestinians and one IDF soldier were killed in the first two days of the fighting. On Tuesday, IDF Staff Sergeant Ben-Zion Henman, a paratrooper, was killed in the refugee camp, as was the Palestinian who shot him - a 17-year-old member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas called on Thursday for a halt to the incursion into Nablus and its refugee camps, which he said was the most recent example of Israel's policy of invasion. Abbas spoke at a joint press conference with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Also Thursday, two Hamas militants were seriously injured in clashes with IDF troops in the central Gaza Strip, Hamas announced. The army said troops making a brief incursion into Gaza exchanged fire with militants, hitting one. Israel Defense Forces troops operating in the West Bank (Beta/AP)

Israel captures Hamas-led West bank cell

Four members of the cell, which includes militants from both Hamas and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), were apprehended - including the intended suicide bomber.

The IDF said a total of 35 Palestinians were arrested in the course of the operation.

Meanwhile, health officials and witnesses in the Gaza Strip said IDF troops operating against rocket squads in the Gaza Strip on Thursday killed a Palestinian teenager who was hit by shrapnel from a tank shell, then run over by an army bulldozer.

Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Health Ministry in Gaza identified the youth as 17-year-old Mahmoud Kassassi. It was not immediately clear if he was armed.

The IDF had no immediate comment on the incident, which took place during an incursion into central Gaza. Hamas security forces said dozens of jeeps, tanks and bulldozers had moved about 1.5 kilometers into the Strip.

During the Nablus raid, residents of Nablus complained that they were running out of food.

A military spokesman said the army is allowing food, medicine and ambulances into the Ein Beit Ilma refugee camp. But with a tight curfew clamped on the camp since Tuesday, some of the 5,000 residents said they couldn't leave their homes to buy food.

In Nablus, Hussam Hamdan, 30, said troops had confined him in a house along with some 70 other people, and they were subsisting on depleting stores of bread and olives. "There is no food in this house we are in," Hamdan said.

Lara Kanan, 23, said water was running out in some houses because rooftop water tanks had been hit by bullets.

The food shortages were especially painful coming during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when observant Muslims fast during the day, then break the fast at night with a celebratory meal known as iftar.

On Thursday, troops fired rubber-coated bullets to disperse a protest by residents calling for an end to the raid, residents said. Hospital officials said 14 people have been wounded by rubber bullets since Wednesday.

Two Palestinians and one IDF soldier were killed in the first two days of the fighting. On Tuesday, IDF Staff Sergeant Ben-Zion Henman, a paratrooper, was killed in the refugee camp, as was the Palestinian who shot him - a 17-year-old member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas called on Thursday for a halt to the incursion into Nablus and its refugee camps, which he said was the most recent example of Israel's policy of invasion. Abbas spoke at a joint press conference with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Also Thursday, two Hamas militants were seriously injured in clashes with IDF troops in the central Gaza Strip, Hamas announced. The army said troops making a brief incursion into Gaza exchanged fire with militants, hitting one.