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Israel turns over some security duties in test; one militant killed©Associated PressAugust 25, 2002 JERUSALEM -- Israeli troops patrolling the West Bank city of Jenin killed one Palestinian militant and wounded two others Saturday, hospital officials said, in one of several clashes overshadowing an agreement turning some Gaza Strip security duties over to Palestinians. A member of the Al Aqsa Brigades, linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, said the three militants opened fire on the troops, who then returned fire. An Israeli tank also fired on stone throwers in Nablus, injuring six people, Palestinian witnesses said, while Israeli troops and Palestinians clashed on Nablus' outskirts after a joint Arab-Jewish peace group tried to deliver food to Palestinians living under curfew for more than two months. The army also said a patrol was shot at in Nablus and a tank shelled the source in return. Israeli military officials did not say if there were any casualties. In the Gaza Strip, the army demolished three Palestinian houses it said Palestinian militants used as cover in an attempted infiltration of a Jewish settlement. Also Saturday, the Israeli army entered a Palestinian police station in the West Bank town of Hebron and arrested a man, whisking him away blindfolded and handcuffed in an armored personnel carrier, witnesses said. Late Saturday, Al Aqsa Brigade members said they fatally shot a Palestinian woman suspected of collaborating with Israel. The body of Ikhlas Yassin, 35, who was kidnapped Friday, was found lying in the street in Tulkarem. The agreement giving security control in some Gaza Strip areas to the Palestinians is a trial for easing harsh Israeli restrictions imposed in the West Bank after a spate of suicide bombings in Israel. Israel turned over security duties to Palestinian forces in the West Bank town of Bethlehem this week and was to take similar measures in Gaza. The Israelis say if the Palestinians can stop attacks from those two places, they will ease restrictions in other parts of the West Bank, where Israeli troops control six of the eight main population centers. About 400 peace activists from an Israeli Jewish-Arab peace group tried to deliver food to Palestinians in Nablus, but their vehicle convoy was stopped at an army checkpoint. Military officials said the demonstrators, all Israeli citizens, were blocked by the army because they had not coordinated their entry into Palestinian areas with the army's civil administration.
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From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
