Israel detains resistance fighters
Israel has arrested 17 members of the Islamic Jihad movement on the eve of talks in Cairo designed to persuade Palestinian resistance groups to declare a new truce.
An Israeli army spokesman said on Wednesday that the wanted activists were detained in and around the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
A Palestinian security source said the Israeli soldiers stormed Jenin on board a dozen tanks and jeeps.
The arrest operation comes two days after a similar sweep in the West Bank city of Ram Allah in which three members of the larger Hamas movement were killed and about 30 arrested.
Hamas on Tuesday issued a statement in which it vowed to “intensify the attacks against all Zionist targets and interests” in response to the events in Ram Allah during which a nine-year-old boy was also killed.
Negotiations
The arrests come a day before scheduled talks in the Egyptian capital which aim to persuade groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad to call a halt to their campaign of resistance or intifada against Israel.
A Palestinian child and an elderly man were also injured by Israeli gunfire in Yebna and Dair al-Balah in the occupied Gaza Strip, said Palestinian security sources.
Israeli forces have closed the main Salah al-Din highway in central Gaza, preventing citizens from returning to their homes.
Despite the cold weather conditions, occupation forces have stopped a number of Palestinian cars and searched passengers.
Meanwhile, Israeli military sources said an officer was seriously wounded overnight by Palestinians fighters near the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom in the southern Gaza Strip.
The soldier had been taken for treatment to the Soroka hospital at Bersheeba in southern Israel.