Israeli Army ready for a long campaign

Israeli Army ready for a long campaign
AGENCE PRESSE FRANCE

JERUSALEM, OCT 24: Israel's Army is preparing for a long campaign of Palestinian violence amid persistent tension in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, an Army spokesman said on Tuesday.

"The Army is preparing for a long campaign with our Palestinian neighbours, as the confrontations are not going to end from one day to the next", Israeli Army spokesman General Ron Kitrey told public radio. "This is a deep-seated phenomenon and not a short-lived adventure."

Seven Palestinians were wounded, one seriously, when youths clashed with Israeli troops near Rafah in the South of the Gaza Strip. The seriously wounded man had been hit in the back with a live round when a gang of youths threw rocks at the soldiers at an Israeli position on the Strip's border with Egypt, the hospital sources said.

The six others were hit by rubber-coated bullets. In a statement, the Army called on the Palestinian Authority to ban schoolchildren from participating in confrontations with the military, following the closure of schools to celebrate a Muslim holy day.

Palestinians and other Muslims worldwide were celebrating the day they believe the prophet Mohammed ascended into heaven. An Army spokesman reported a number of firing incidents overnight targeting Jewish settlements and military positions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In Palestinian-controlled Hebron in the southern West Bank, a 55-year-old Palestinian was killed and his four children were injured when their home was hit by an Israeli tank shell fired in retaliation for Palestinian gunfire directed at a Jewish settlement in the town. Three Palestinians were also wounded when their car was hit, the Army spokesman said. Shots were fired at an Army post in the South of the Gaza Strip, as well as a Jewish settlement and a border post in the North of the West Bank, the military said. In East Jerusalem, four border guards were slightly hurt in a petrol bomb attack on their vehicle close to the Rockefeller Museum, Israeli police said.