IDF, Hamas in Hebron Gun Battle
September 09, 2003
Jerusalem (ICEJ) — A thirteen-year-old Palestinian boy was reportedly killed Tuesday morning by shrapnel after Israeli special forces surrounded an eight-story building in Hebron in search for Hamas fugitives, two of whom died in the ensuing gun battle.
The IDF is investigating Palestinian claims that the youth was injured by tank shrapnel while watching events unfold with his family from a neighboring building and died in hospital from his wounds. According to other reports, a Palestinian girl was also injured in the fighting.
Troops arrived at the building in the early hours of the morning to arrest high-ranking Hamas members from the Kawasmeh family to whom the building belongs. While calling upon residents to leave gunmen opened fire on the troops prompting the army to send in back up forces that surrounded the premises throughout much of the day.
Following an intense gun battle lasting for several hours, soldiers broke into the complex and discovered two bodies thought to belong to members of the Hamas cell targeted in the raid. One of the gunmen who surrendered after being wounded earlier in the day is now receiving treatment in an Israeli hospital.
The army did not specify the individuals targeted in the raid, but in the past three weeks troops carried out a series of strikes against Hamas, which claimed responsibility for a bus bombing last month that killed 22 people in Jerusalem. The suicide bomber in that attack came from Hebron.
In Jerusalem security forces raised the alert level in the capital due to an increased warnings of terror attacks and possible infiltrations across the porous seam-line border with the territories.
Defense sources fear that Hamas in particular will try to carry out a large terror attack in the coming days to avenge the failed Israeli Air Force strike on Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin on Saturday.