Israeli army reports Palestinian rocket fire

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military said Palestinian fighters fired six rockets from the Gaza Strip into the south of the country on Thursday, hours after an Israeli army raid in the West Bank killed 11 Palestinians.

The rocket attacks, for which no Palestinian group has so far claimed responsibility, appear to be retaliation for Wednesday’s raid on Nablus.

Anti-aircraft defenses intercepted five of the rockets launched towards the cities of Ashkelon and Sederot, the Israeli armed forces reported. Another shell landed in an open field. Israel responded by mobilizing its air force, which hit several targets in northern and central Gaza. Neither Israeli nor Gaza authorities reported injuries.

Among the dead in Nablus were three Palestinian men, aged 72, 66 and 61, and a 16-year-old boy, according to health officials. In addition, dozens of other people were injured.

It was one of the bloodiest battles in nearly a year of fighting in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, raising the prospect of further fighting. Israeli police said they were on high alert, while in Gaza the Hamas group said it was “running out” of patience. Islamic Jihad, another radical group, vowed retaliation.

The four-hour operation caused extensive damage to an old market in Nablus, a city considered a stronghold of fighters.

In an emotional scene, an overwhelmed doctor pronounced a man dead, only to realize the victim was his father. Elsewhere, amateur video showed two men, apparently unarmed, shot dead as they ran down the street.

Israel has stepped up operations to arrest wanted fighters in the West Bank since Palestinians carried out a series of attacks in Israel last year.

Israeli officials compare these operations to “mowing the lawn”, assuring that they are necessary to prevent a difficult situation from worsening. But the raids have done little to reduce the violence, and in cases like Wednesday’s, they increase the possibility of retaliation.

The Israeli armed forces reported that they had entered Nablus to arrest three men suspected of carrying out attacks. The prime suspect was wanted in the murder of an Israeli soldier late last year.

The armed forces generally conduct their operations at night, in what they describe as a tactic to reduce the risk of civilian casualties. But army spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said his forces acted quickly after intelligence services located the suspects in a hideout.

Hecht said Israeli forces surrounded the building and demanded that the men surrender, but they started shooting instead. A fighter trying to flee the building was shot dead. He added that the armed forces then launched a missile which demolished the building and claimed the lives of the other two men.

At the same time, he noted, the elements that had established an outer perimeter came under fire, triggering an intense firefight. The army said other people threw rocks and explosives at the soldiers, and authorities released video taken from inside an armored vehicle of young Palestinians throwing rocks at it. There were no Israeli casualties.

The large number of injuries overwhelmed the city’s Najah Hospital, said Ahmad Aswad, director of nursing for the cardiology department.

The 36-year-old doctor told The Associated Press that he had seen numerous patients with gunshot wounds to the chest, head and thighs. “They shot to kill,” he said.

In a moment he said will haunt him forever, he and a colleague carefully removed a bullet from the heart of a 61-year-old man. Once the chaos was behind them and they pronounced the patient dead, they finally saw the man’s face. It was Abdelaziz Ashqar, father of his colleague.

His colleague, Elias Ashqar, was chilled and silent. “It didn’t look real,” Aswad said.

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Tufaha reported from Nablus. Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem contributed to this report.