Friday, June 21, 2002

At Least 3 Palestinians Are Killed as Israelis Fire on a Jenin Market
Israeli forces opened fire on a market in the West Bank city of Jenin today, killing at least three people and wounding dozens of Palestinians who thought a curfew had been lifted, witnesses said.

The Israeli Army spokesman's office said that three Palestinians were killed and that an initial inquiry "indicates that the force erred in its action." An investigation is continuing, the army added.

The spokesman's office said 10 Palestinians were also wounded in the attack, when soldiers fired two tanks shells to disperse what they thought was a crowd of curfew violators.

Palestinian hospital officials put the death toll at four, including three children, and said 24 people were wounded.

The witnesses told Reuters that people stocking up on bread and supplies were hit by Israeli machine-gun fire and shelling after reports that the army had lifted a curfew imposed when tanks moved into the city on Tuesday.

The incident came a day after Palestinian gunmen killed five Israeli settlers in a raid Thursday night, including a 40-year-old mother and three of her six children aged between 5 and 15. At the same time, Israeli soldiers spread throughout the West Bank enforcing a new policy to take back Palestinian land in reprisal for suicide bombings.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops shot dead a militant who attacked them with hand grenades at a border crossing where Palestinian laborers gather for security checks before entering an Israeli industrial area, the military and Israel radio said.

Two of the workers were killed in the incident. Israeli forces also shot dead an 8-year-old Palestinian boy in a raid in the Gaza Strip after an Israeli was seriously wounded in an attack by militants near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim.

In Jenin today, hospital officials said they were overwhelmed by the number of casualties from the Israeli action.

"People thought the curfew was no longer on," Jenin's acting governor, Haider Irsheid, told the news agency. "They got hungry and wanted bread, so they went to the market to buy some. The Israelis opened fire." Hospital officials said that a 6-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl were killed as well as the deputy director of the city's education department. Dozens of people were wounded.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/21/international/21CND-MIDE.html

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