btw any news about those five palestinian police men who were found in Ramallah? I heard they were propably shot when they were on their knees....
Edit:
"Israeli soldiers shot dead five Palestinian policemen in cold blood in Ramallah, Palestinians said.
Israeli soldiers shot dead five Palestinian policemen in cold blood in Ramallah, Palestinians said. They said the policemen were found on Saturday, after Israeli tanks had rolled into the West Bank city and smashed into the headquarters of the Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat.
Israel was also racked by more violence, with suicide bombings in Haifa and Tel Aviv, a police sergeant killed stopping two would-be attackers from entering the country, and Lebanese guerillas firing mortar rounds at a border military outpost.
If there had been any hope that the latest bloodletting would give either side pause, that vanished when Israelis and Palestinians pointed to the day's events as a reason to strengthen their resolve and press forward with the fight.
Palestinian sources said yesterday that Israel had ordered the evacuation of all Palestinian security offices, compounds and posts in the Gaza Strip.
"It seems that a wide operation in the Gaza Strip is imminent, both from the air and ground," a source said.
Employees of international aid organisations had reportedly been asked to leave Gaza.
Palestinian officials said four security officers had been shot dead yesterday at a social club in southern Ramallah that Israeli forces took over .
The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israel was preventing ambulances from evacuating Palestinians killed and wounded by Israeli gunfire in the streets of Ramallah. "Each time the ambulances have been stopped by soldiers, who have threatened our crews with guns," a Red Crescent spokesman said.
A senior Palestinian negotiator, Hassan Asfour, said the five policemen found on Saturday had been "executed in cold blood. This is a clear example of the collective execution policy adopted by the Israeli Government against the Palestinian people."
An Israeli Army spokesman said soldiers entered the building after Palestinians opened fire from inside and threw a grenade at the force outside.
"There was an exchange of fire at close range, and as a result the gunmen were killed and two soldiers moderately wounded."
Residents said the policemen's bodies had been found in a building that Israeli troops seized on Friday. A Palestinian cameraman who filmed the policemen said he saw no weapons on them, suggesting that they were unarmed or that Israeli soldiers had taken their arms away.
In the United States, President George Bush pointedly did not add his imprimatur to a resolution the United Nations Security Council passed early on Saturday - and which the US supported - calling on Israel to withdraw its troops from Mr Arafat's compound.
"I fully understand Israel's need to defend herself; I respect that," Mr Bush said. "As she does so, I urge that their government, the Israeli Government, makes sure that there is a path to peace as she secures her homeland."
In Israel, the anger was palpable at the scene of the Tel Aviv suicide bombing, the third in four days. "Kill Arafat," people chanted near the charred remains of My Coffee Shop, a popular gathering spot on Allenby Street.
The cafe was packed when a young man entered and set off his bomb, killing himself and injuring 32, five of them critically.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is affiliated with Mr Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility.
The attack came even as Israeli tanks and soldiers had spent a day searching and arresting Palestinian men inside Ramallah. The message to Israel seemed clear: its military cannot stop militants from entering the country, almost at will.
Israel vowed to press even harder. A call-up of 20,000 reservists, the largest mobilisation since Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, was expected to continue yesterday.
Israel also sent tanks back into the West Bank village of Beit Jala after Palestinians fired a mortar shell into Gilo, a Jewish settlement on the outskirts of Jerusalem. No-one was injured in the attack on Gilo."
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I would like to have more info about this one but as you know Israel doesn't let news.groups or photographers in Ramallah. Guess they don't want world to see what's happening there.
