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Two IDF soldiers and an Israeli security guard were wounded Saturday evening during an exchange of fire with a Palestinian gunman close to an industrial area northwest of the West Bank city of Jenin.
One of the three was moderately wounded and the other two sustained light wounds. Despite their injuries, the three continued to fire at the gunman until they hit him.
IDF enters Gaza camp
IDF troops backed by dozens of tanks, armored vehicles and attack helicopters, pushed into the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on Saturday evening, during one of the largest military incursions on the Egypt-Gaza border in the 30 months of fighting.
IDF officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the army was operating in the Rafah area, but would not give details.
Three Palestinians were shot and injured by the Israeli troops, witnesses said. One, a Palestinian security official, was shot in the head and was in critical condition, hospital officials said.
Witnesses in Gaza said the IDF troops forces penetrated the refugee camp from three directions using more than 35 tanks and armored personnel carriers, bulldozers and jeeps. Five attack helicopters circled above, flashing spotlights above the camp.
The Yibna neighborhood in the camp is one of two known militant strongholds. The incursion appeared to be targeted at the neighborhood.
Palestinian cameraman killed by IDF fire in Nablus
Israel Defense Forces troops shot dead a Palestinian cameraman Saturday, and 18 Palestinians were wounded in a clash after an operation in which a would-be suicide bomber was arrested.
IDF paratroopers entered central Nablus and arrested Fada al Hit, a woman planning to carry out a suicide bombing in Israel, as well as Raida Majadla, the woman who recruited other women to carry out suicide bombings. Both are members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Upon exiting the city's Casbah, or old city, one of the tanks got stuck in a central square due to a technical problem. Dozens of Palestinians arrived at the scene, and began shooting at the tank and hurling molotov cocktails at it.
"A few armed Palestinians shot at our forces and threw explosive devices," IDF spokeswoman Major Sharon Feingold said.
She said that "our forces used non-lethal weapons to disperse them and when that didn't help they used light weapons." Witnesses said there had been no Palestinian gunfire in the area at the time.
"The entry of press during an exchange of fire endangers the forces and the photographers who took the risk of possibly being hurt. The army will continue to investigate the event and expresses regret over the harm to innocent people," Feingold said.
A group of Palestinian journalists, including a Reuters cameraman and photographer, said they were trying to film the clash from the outskirts of the Casbah when soldiers opened fire on them.
Nazih Darouza, 41, was hit in the face in the shooting and died on the way to hospital, a Reuters journalists and Palestinian medics said. Witnesses said he was wearing a jacket marked "press."
Darouza was the father of four, and worked for Palestinian television as well as for the Associated Press.
An IDF source said that troops who entered Nablus clashed with a large group of Palestinians, some of whom shot at soldiers, while others threw petrol bombs and stones. The source said soldiers were still trying to disperse the crowd but had no immediate comment on the cameraman's death.
Would-be suicide bomber turns himself in
A Palestinian man planning to carry out a suicide bombing inside Israel over the Passover holiday turned himself in on Saturday in Tul Karm. IDF paratroopers discovered the explosives-laden suitcase he was going to use in a cave in the West Bank city.
The suitcase, which contained six kilograms of explosives, was detonated in a controlled blast, as were two other explosive devices discovered near the settlement of Beit Haggai in the southern Hebron hills.
On Thursday, three Jihad activists who planned the attack and a woman whose job was to smuggle the suitcase into Israel were arrested.
Also Saturday, IDF troops in Ibadiya, east of Bethlehem, arrested Jihad Halila, who planned to carry out a suicide attack.
Security forces remained on high alert Saturday, the third day of the Passover holiday, and a full curfew remained in place on all the Palestinian towns in the West Bank. Forces are expected to remain on high alert throughout Passover, which ends on Wednesday next week.
Also in Tul Karm, a Palestinian was shot dead Friday by IDF troops enforcing a curfew, Palestinian witnesses said.
They said the man who was killed, Yusuf Yahya, 21, was shot several times after IDF forces spotted him on a Tul Karm street. An IDF spokesman said the man was shot after he had thrown two petrol bombs at troops and was preparing to light a third.
Security forces were expecting terror organizations, especially Hamas and Islamic Jihad, to make a special effort to carry out terror attacks on the anniversary of the Park Hotel attack in Netanya, in which 29 people were killed on seder night last year, in order to reinstate the Palestinian issue on the international agenda.
Two left-wing activists lightly hurt in clashes with settlers
Two Israeli left-wing activists were lightly hurt Saturday afternoon between settlers and the activists accompanied by Palestinians in the Maon settlement in the southern Hebron hills.
One of the settlers fired at the ground and the ricochets grazes two activists. Hebron police arrested the shooter, and IDF troops and policemen arrived at the scene to prevent further clashes.
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