Israeli Incursion into Rafah after Palestinian Teenager Dies of Wounds

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HIGHLIGHTS: Two Palestinians Wounded in Rafah as Occupation Troops Demolish Structures Near the Border with Egypt||Curfew Imposed on Jenin||Occupation Troops Arrest Dozens of Palestinians in the West Bank City Including an Alleged Bomber||Relatives of Recent Hudeira Bomber Detained in Jenin||Aqsa Brigades Resistance Men Shoot Two Women Collaborators in the Legs in Nablus||Despite Complaints, Arafat and Sharon Would Respond to a Quartet Peace Plan Reviewed Recently with U.S. Envoy Burns in a Week's Time|| STORY: An Israeli armoured unit made an incursion late into the flashpoint southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah killing a teenager. Israeli occupation troops also arrested dozens of Palestinians Saturday during a search of the West Bank town of Jenin for resistance activists involved in a resistance bombing, and a U.S. envoy left the region with neither side optimistic about the latest peace proposal.

Some 15 armoured vehicles backed up by two helicopter gunships penetrated several hundred metres (yards) inside, Rafah, on the border with Egypt.

Earlier Saturday, a 14-year-old Palestinian boy died after being wounded by Israeli gunfire in Rafah, Palestinian hospital sources said.

Two more Palestinians were injured after dark in Rafah, when troops shot as about 15 tanks and two bulldozers moved into the camp and began demolishing structures not far from the border, residents said.

ISRAEL ARRESTS DOZENS OF PALESTINIANS IN JENIN

In an occupation army operation in Jenin that began Friday, occupation soldiers imposed a curfew on the 50,000 residents of the town and its refugee camp and began searching from house to house after dark Saturday.

Dozens of Palestinians were arrested in the searches, including residents with no connections to resistance groups, witnesses said. The occupation army said its soldiers arrested 30 suspects including a bomber on the way to an attack and two relatives of one of the two teenage bombers who carried out an attack on a bus last Monday that killed 14 people.

Near Jenin on Saturday, occupation troops arrested an activist of the resistance group Hamas, Mahmud Abadi, who was on his way to carry out a bombing in Israel, the occupation army said.

In addition to those in Jenin, about 15 Palestinians were arrested in the West Bank over the weekend, the army said.

Overnight in the West Bank town of Nablus, members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, dragged two sisters from their home and shot them both in their legs, claiming they collaborated with Israel's intelligence services.

U.S. ENVOY LEAVES REGION EMPTY HANDED

Meanwhile, Assistant Secretary of State William Burns wrapped up a visit during which he presented the Israelis and Palestinians with the peace plan that calls for a provisional Palestinian state by the end of 2003 and full independence by 2005.

But Israel complained the proposal did not fully address its security concerns, while Palestinians said the plan's omission of presidential elections was an effort to sideline Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Arafat has said he is still studying the plan and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is slated to give a response within a week.

Burns will take the comments back to the Quartet - the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia - which is to adopt the final plan by December.

The U.S. snub of Arafat was clear in Burns' visit - the envoy met with a Palestinian legislator at her home just a few yards from Arafat's office in the West Bank town of Ramallah. The United States has criticized Arafat for not taking a firmer hand against anti-Israeli militants and has also pressed for political and economic reform in the Palestinian Authority.

PHOTO CAPTION

Israeli military bulldozers demolish house and search for tunnels near the Al Nor mosque in the Rafah refugee camp, in the south of the Gaza Strip October 26, 2002.. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadall

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