[Peace-discuss] Abduction

[David Green]

Abduction referred to by Chomsky in interview with Amy
Goodman, the day before Israeli soldier captured, not
reported in U.S. media.

Saturday, June 24, 2006 
Commandos enter [700 meters inside Gaza Strip] from
Rafah, arrest two Hamas militants  

 Commandos enter Rafah, arrest two Hamas militants
By Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff and Agencies 25 June
2006
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/730782.html
For the first time since the disengagement from the
Gaza Strip last year, 
IDF special forces entered the border area of Rafah
last night and arrested 
two Palestinian brothers, members of Hamas who
security services say were 
planning to carry out a large terrorist attack against
Israel.

During the operation, which took place under cover of
darkness, the IDF 
forces withdrew immediately after the capture of the
two militants, and no 
shots were fired.

An IDF spokesman described the raid as a "surgical
operation," stressing 
that neither gunfire nor tanks had been necessary. He
also said that the 
raid was an isolated incident and did not signal a new
tactic in the war 
against the militants.

"They [the two arrested militants] were involved in
something that was 
supposed to happen very soon," he said without
offering further details.

The decision to use ground troops stemmed from the
urgency of the situation 
and the relatively low danger involved.

The two militants are Mustafa and Osama Ma'amar, who
Hamas spokesman Sami 
Abu Zuhri said were not members of the group, but
local activists confirmed 
as sons of a prominent local Hamas leader and known to
be members.

Family members said that one of the brothers was a
doctor who trained in 
Saudi Arabia and worked in Sudan, which is considered
a cauldron of 
international jihadist activity.

Israeli ground forces have entered Gaza a total of
three times since Israel 
completed its unilateral withdrawal from the area last
September, but 
yesterday marked the first time troops arrested
militants.

In the other incursions, troops cleared explosives
near the border, and 
briefly entered Gaza to kill three militants who were
launching rockets.

Hamas confirmed yesterday's incursion, saying troops
entered the southern 
Gaza Strip, east of the town of Rafah, about 700
meters (yards) to storm a 
house, make the arrests, and then withdraw. They
stayed in for about an 
hour, the group said.

Also yesterday, three Qassam rockets were fired
against Israel from the 
northern Gaza Strip. Two landed inside Palestinian
territory and one hit 
fields near the western Negev town of Sderot.

A woman was treated for shock, probably due to the use
of the Red Dawn 
warning system.

On Friday a mortar round hit near Kerem-Shalom. No
damage or casualties were 
reported.

A road side bomb was detonated yesterday against an
IDF patrol passing near 
the fence of the southern Gaza Strip. There were no
injuries.

On Friday, a bomb exploded in the West Bank, near the
settlement of Neve 
Daniel, in Gush Etzion. At the time the areas was full
of Israeli hikers. No 
one was injured.

The bomb was detonated remotely with the use of a
cellular telephone.

This is the second incident in the area in recent
weeks. Previously, 
Palestinians stabbed two Israeli hikers and caused
them moderate injuries.

An IDF patrol shot and wounded an Islamic Jihad
fugitive yesterday at Kafr 
Kud, west of Jenin. The soldiers had arrived in the
village to arrest the 
militant, and fired when they saw he was armed with a
pistol on the roof. He 
was slightly injured and was arrested.

Four other wanted Palestinians were arrested yesterday
in the environs of 
Bethlehem and the Ramallah.

A Fatah militant, wanted by the security forces, was
seriously injured by a 
bomb he tried to throw against IDF troops in Nablus
yesterday.

In three other incidents in the West Bank yesterday,
bombs were thrown at 
IDF patrols and in one case shots were fired near
Nablus and Qalqilyah. 
There were no IDF injuries. 

 


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