Two Palestinians, Israeli Soldier Killed in Nablus Firefight

08/08/2003| IslamWeb

At least two Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were killed during an early Friday clash, in a refugee camp near Nablus, Al-Jazeera satellite channel reported. Friday's pre-dawn gunbattle centered on a three-story apartment building in the Askar refugee camp, next to the northern West Bank city of Nablus. Zionist force searching for a Hamas leader came under fire from the building. In return, occupation troops fired a missile at a building in the camp. The anti-tank missile was directed at the third floor of a building in the camp. The missile set off a series of explosions, destroying the third floor. After that Israeli troops destroyed complete building. A Hamas spokesman said the killing of one of its followers, named as Khamis Abu Salam, a member of Hamas group's armed wing, in a building at Nablus' Askar refugee camp was a "flagrant violation of the truce by the Zionist enemy." Israeli defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said the PA had until the end of September to demonstrate they were taking care of 'militant' groups such as Hamas. At that point "we will have to tell the PA, 'Either you're going to take care of this or we are going to take care of this,'" he said. **Israeli Aircraft Bomb South Lebanon*** Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes bombed the fringes of villages in south Lebanon on Friday after Hezbollah militiamen attacked Israeli army posts in the disputed Shebaa Farms border region, said Lebanese police. Fighter bombers swooped four times to fire missiles at targets on the outskirts of Kfarshuba, Hebbariyeh, Slamiyeh and Kfarhamam near the Shebaa Farms, they said. At the same time, militiamen of the Shiite movement Hezbollah traded artillery fire with Israeli troops. The guerrilla attack, the first in the Shebaa Farms for seven months, followed a car-bomb explosion which killed a Hezbollah member in southern Beirut on August 2 that the group blamed on Israel. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Southern Lebanon (archive)