"Israeli" forces kill 4 in rare incursion into Ramallah

Source: Agencies, 5-1-2007
"Israeli" forces mounted a rare raid into the West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday, killing four Palestinians, and a senior Palestinian commander died in factional fighting in the Gaza Strip.
The Ramallah raid came hours before "Israeli" Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met in Egypt to explore restarting the stalled peace process.
Smoke rose over central Ramallah after "Israeli" armored vehicles and bulldozers, slamming aside parked cars near the main Manara Square, pushed into the city to carry out what an "Israeli" Army spokeswoman called "routine arrest activity."
She said four wanted men had been detained.
The raid was the biggest in Ramallah since May, when four Palestinians were killed by "Israeli" forces. Palestinians responded to the latest incursion with gunfire and rocks as pedestrians scrambled for safety.
"This operation proves that "Israeli" calls for peace and security are false," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement read by a spokesman.
Abbas, locked in a power struggle with Prime Minister Ismail Haniyya, also appealed for an end to mounting internal violence in the Gaza Strip. Gunmen loyal to Abbas` Fatah movement and Haniyya`s Hamas have been engaging in increasingly violent shootouts for several days.
and Hamas to pull back from the brink.
Palestinian security sources said an "Israeli" helicopter had poured machine-gun fire into a building near Manara Square. An "Israeli" spokesman said the helicopter fired at "an open area."
Hospital officials said four Palestinians had been killed and at least 25 other people had been wounded.
A senior leader of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant offshoot of Fatah, said the raid was aimed at capturing one of its top members.
In a separate incursion in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, "Israeli" forces wounded one Palestinian and took him into custody, the "Israeli" Army and Palestinian security officials said. The army said he was a "wanted Fatah operative."
"Israel" frequently carries out raids in the West Bank to detain suspected militants, but largely stays out of Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian government.