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Palestinian boy killed in firefight { March 26 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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Palestinian Boy Killed in Firefight
UPDATED - Friday March 26, 2004 9:28am
NABLUS, West Bank (AP) - A 7-year-old Palestinian boy was killed Saturday by what the Israeli military said was haphazard Palestinian gunfire toward an army jeep in a West Bank refugee camp.
The boy, Khaled Walweel, had been standing at the window of his home and just turned his back when he was shot and killed, his family said.
The latest violence comes amid deepening tensions in the aftermath of Israel's assassination Monday of Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin.
Members of Yassin's radical Islamic group are promising revenge and Israel's military says it will continue to hit militant leaders. And people on both sides fear a new wave of violence in a conflict that has lasted more than three years.
Troops entered the Balata refugee camp, on the edge of the West Bank city of Nablus early Saturday to search for a fugitive suspected in a number of attempts in recent weeks to smuggle explosives, local army commander Col. Guy Hatzout said.
Soldiers traded fire with Palestinian gunmen, but Hatzout ordered his troops to withdraw when they were unable to find the fugitive. Hatzout said he drove into the camp in his jeep to supervise the withdrawal of his troops.
The colonel said there hadn't been any firing for about five minutes when suddenly a Palestinian gunman began shooting toward the jeep from an alley. Hatzout said the man fired from behind a corner, and therefore couldn't see what he was shooting at.
"Ten seconds later, I hear screaming behind my jeep. I see an entire family shouting, and in the arms of a father I see a bleeding boy," he said. The boy's mother believes he was hit by Israeli soldiers firing at a group of youths hurling stones at their jeeps. But an army spokesman said troops did not open fire at the time of the incident.
Video footage showed a line of jeeps being pelted by stones as troops drive through one of the camp's alleys. At one point, a bullet hits the top right fender of the lead jeep, and moments later, screaming is heard and several people carry a boy into the street.
The boy's family lives in a second-floor apartment and a bullet fired at street level might have ricocheted into the apartment window.
"He (the boy) was playing near the window," the boy's mother, Lina, said. "Suddenly, I heard shooting, and saw my boy drop from the sofa to the ground. I saw the (army) jeep from the window. The jeep was 10 meters (yards) from the house."
A militant also was ripped apart when explosives blew up prematurely in his car on Friday in Balata.
Hamas on Friday delivered new warnings of retaliation for Israel's killing of its leader. But Hamas and other militant groups have had trouble carrying out the threats.
Soldiers foiled a seaborne attack on a Jewish settlement in Gaza Thursday night, shooting dead two attackers who emerged from the Mediterranean in wetsuits and flippers.
Earlier in the week, soldiers stopped a 16-year-old Palestinian, Hussam Abdo, with a bomb vest strapped to his body at a crowded West Bank checkpoint, setting off a tense encounter with soldiers.
The White House announced Friday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would meet President Bush (website - news - bio) in Washington on April 14 to discuss ways to renew peace talks. The long-expected meeting is to be part of a series of upcoming talks between Bush and key Mideast leaders, including Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah.
Next week, a trio of U.S. emissaries is expected to make its third trip to the region to talk with Israeli and Palestinian officials on Israel's proposed plan to pull soldiers and Jewish settlers out of the Gaza Strip.
In other developments, Palestinian leaders were furious with the United States for vetoing a United Nations resolution that would have condemned Israel for killing Yassin. They said they saw the rejection as a green light for Israel to continue killing militants in airstrikes that have also claimed the lives of innocent bystanders.
At a Gaza City rally that drew thousands of supporters and gunmen Friday night, Ismail Haniyeh, a close associate of Yassin, said that with the veto, America showed it had the Hamas leader's blood on its hands.
"This is proof that the United States was involved in shedding the blood of Sheik Ahmed Yassin," Haniyeh told reporters. "The Israeli enemy is practicing terrorism and the United States is giving it continuous support."
The United States vetoed the U.N. Security Council resolution on Thursday, complaining that the text did not mention Hamas attacks against Israelis.
The group has carried out many of the suicide bombings that have killed more than 450 people in the current conflict.
In another development Friday, the United Nations said in a statement that several aid agencies may be forced to cut back or end humanitarian work in the Gaza Strip, where most of 1.3 million Palestinians live, because of Israeli restrictions on their movement.
Israel's deputy U.N. ambassador, Arye Meckel, said the mission in New York had received no complaints. "Without having received any complaints nevertheless, if there are any restrictions they must be based on the security situation there," Meckel said.
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