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Israeli copter fires on car in gaza Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/ap/ap_story.html/Intl/AP.V1614.AP-Israel-Palestin.htmlhttp://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/ap/ap_story.html/Intl/AP.V1614.AP-Israel-Palestin.html
Israeli Copter Fires on Car in Gaza Strip
By IBRAHIM BARZAK
Associated Press Writer
GAZA CITY, Gaza (AP)--An Israeli helicopter fired two missiles at a car in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, wounding at least 11 people, in what appeared to be a new targeted attack on Palestinian militants, witnesses said.
Israel has frequently carried out similar airstrikes aimed at militants. In the most recent, Israeli helicopters killed three Islamic Jihad militants and two civilians in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, the first such targeted killing in two months.
It was not immediately known who was in the car, and doctors said all the wounded appeared to have been bystanders. The vehicle was heading toward the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, a stronghold of the Islamic militant group Hamas, witnesses said.
The Israeli army said it was checking the report. Television footage broadcast on Israeli television showed an angry crowd gathered around the heavily damaged vehicle.
Palestinian officials, trying to secure a halt in militant attacks on Israelis, have been trying to win Israeli guarantees of a halt in such assassinations.
Israeli security officials last week indicated they would halt attacks on Hamas militants after the military chief, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, said the group appeared to have halted attacks inside Israel. Security officials said the attacks on other groups would continue after a suicide bombing outside Tel Aviv on Thursday that killed four people.
``I saw a flame hit a small car and people trying to escape from the car,'' said Raouf Musalam, a pharmacy owner who witnessed Tuesday's attack. ``Apaches were overhead for about two minutes while people rushed to help the wounded people.''
Dr. Jomma Saka of Gaza's Shifa Hospital said 11 people were wounded, apparently none of them the occupants of the car. One was in critical condition, another suffered moderate injuries, he said.
Meanwhile, in the West Bank, Israeli forces entered Nablus early Tuesday, exchanging gunfire with Palestinian militants and placing a curfew on the city's heavily populated ancient quarter of the West Bank city, Palestinian witnesses said.
A day earlier, Israeli troops completed a two-week sweep of Nablus and the nearby Balata refugee camp in which soldiers arrested dozens of suspected militants.
Early Tuesday, the troops moved into Nablus' Old City, forcing about 40,000 people to stay in their homes and keeping children out of school, the witnesses said. Troops also forced residents out of their homes to conduct searches, they added.
No casualties were reported from the gunfire.
An army spokesman said the ``terror infrastructure'' was continuing to operate in Nablus and one suspect was arrested overnight.
The sweep is one of the largest Israeli military raids in the West Bank in recent months, reflecting Israeli policy to go after suspected Palestinian militants in the absence of Palestinian efforts to crack down on violent groups.
In other developments Tuesday, troops killed a Palestinian man near the city of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian hospital officials said.
The Israeli army said it had fired at a group of suspicious figures who appeared to be planting explosives near the settlement of Morag, wounding one man. The Palestinian hospital sources said the man, 22-year-old Fadel Majar, had been killed by random gunfire.
Also Tuesday, new figures released by Israel's Interior Ministry showed that the population of Jewish settlements grew 16 percent since shortly before Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took office.
An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the increase reflected ``natural growth'' of existing settlements, not new construction.
Meanwhile, Israel's military chief said the army is considering changing its rules for opening fire after the shooting last week of an Israeli demonstrator during a protest against Israel's West Bank security barrier, Israel Radio reported.
The shooting has set off an uproar in Israel, and the army has opened an investigation into the incident. Authorities interviewed a sniper and two commanders Tuesday as part of the probe.
``This matter is being examined closely, in a profound and thoroughgoing investigation,'' the chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
``It's possible that if we have to change the orders for opening fire, we will do so,'' Yaalon said.
AP-NY-12-30-03 1403EST
Copyright 2003, The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP Online news report may not be published, broadcast or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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