The IDF completed its sweep of the security complex in Beituniya after Palestinians holed up inside surrendered on Tuesday. Under a U.S.-brokered ceasefire, some 200 of those in PA West Bank Preventive Security Chief Jabril Rajoub's compound gave up to Israeli forces, following fierce battles, but no additional terrorists were found inside.
IDF sources said the army had blockaded the buildings for three days before launching the operation, which began shortly after 1:30 a.m. Palestinians said that the buildings of the complex were engulfed in flames and that there were many casualties inside. IDF Spokesman Lt. Col. Olivier Rafowicz "categorically denied" Palestinian charges that the army had used Palestinian civilians as a human shield in front of the tanks before the assault.
Rajoub, who left the complex earlier this week, told CNN that there were 400 people inside the Beituniya buildings. "I did not educate my people to surrender to anybody. That's not our attitude and not our culture. I cannot give any order other than to fight to the last bullet," he said.
Several Hamas and Fatah commanders, responsible for the dispatch of suicide bombers on missions against Israeli targets, are believed to have taken refuge in the compound. West Bank Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti is also hiding inside, the army said.
Rajoub denied the army's allegations. "It's only a matter of minutes or hours until it becomes clear that Marwan Barghouti is not inside the complex," he said, interviewed by Israel Radio.
Israeli forces continued house to house searches in Ramallah for Palestinian terrorists and weapons. Since the offensive in the city began on Friday, security forces "have arrested more than 700 people in Ramallah, including a relatively large number of wanted people at different levels of importance," said military spokesman Brig. Gen. Ron Kitrey. The confinement of PA Chairman Yasser Arafat to virtual house arrest in a small portion of his Ramallah headquarters continued.
Overnight, Israeli forces moved into Tulkarm and Bethlehem. Gunfire exchanges between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli troops were reported on the edge of Manger Square, just outside the Church of the Nativity. According to the Associated Press, an Israeli armored personnel carrier fired several rounds at the Star Hotel, where about two dozen journalists covering the incursions are based. A cameraman for the Arab satellite TV station Al-Jazeera was lightly injured in the head by shrapnel.
At least sixteen IDF officers and soldiers were injured, three of them seriously, during military operations in Ramallah and Kalkilya yesterday. At least 25 Palestinians, all men in their 20s and 30s, have been killed since the Israeli incursion into Ramallah began.
Policeman gives life preventing Jerusalem attack
Policeman Tomer Mordechai, 19, from Tel Aviv, gave his life when he prevented a major terrorist attack in Jerusalem Monday night. Mordechai stopped a suspicious car at a police roadblock on Nevi'im Street, not far from the Old City. When he went to check the car, the terrorist driver detonated an explosive charge, killing both himself and Mordechai. Two other people were lightly injured in the blast.
"We believe the bomber's intention was to bring the car or blow himself up in the center of Jerusalem," said Jerusalem Police Commander Mickey Levy.
CBS anchorman Dan Rathers and two producers of his "CBS Evening News" program had driven through the roadblock just minutes before the explosion. Hearing the blast, the CBS team went back to film the scene of the attack, a CBS spokesman said.
Another terrorist attack was thwarted overnight at Moshav Ram-On, in the Ta'anachim region north of Jenin. A terrorist gunman infiltrated the moshav, fired several rounds and tried to break into one of the community's houses. One resident suffered light wounds from flying glass.
Border Police and police forces pursued the terrorist into Palestinian-controlled territories and killed him in a gunfight.
Sgt. Ofir Roth, 22, from Gan Yashaya, was killed by Palestinian sniper fire Monday evening at Har Homa, just south of Jerusalem. Roth, who had been called up for reserve duty three days before, was not wearing a bulletproof flak jacket when he was shot.
In another shooting attack, an Israeli motorist and his three children were lightly to moderately injured when Palestinians opened fire on their car at the Shamiya Junction, in the southern Hebron Hills. Shots were fired at an Israeli vehicle on the Ramallah bypass road last night. There were no injuries in that attack, but damage was caused to the car.
A Palestinian was killed and another was seriously wounded Monday evening when gunfire was directed at their truck near Kochav Hashahar, northeast of Ramallah. Police are investigating the possibility that members of an extremist right-wing Israeli organization fired at the truck, but have not ruled out the possibility that Palestinians, mistaking the motorists for Israelis, were behind the shooting attack.
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