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Violent clashes in Gaza during hunt for rockets
GAZA CITY (CNN) -- Violence erupted early Sunday in northern Gaza as Israeli troops continued their search for Qassam rocket launching sites. Palestinians fired four Qassam rockets from Gaza toward Israeli towns Sunday, Israel Defense Forces said. One, fired from northern Gaza, hit the town of Sderot. The other three were fired from the southern Gaza strip and hit a nearby Israeli town. There were no casualties in any of the attacks. The rocket search took place hours after Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials held security talks designed to quell a week of clashes that have killed more than 50 people -- including Israeli military personnel, Palestinian militants and civilians on both sides. During Sunday's search in Beit Hanoun for launch sites for the missiles -- homemade rockets with a range of up to five miles (eight kilometers) that have been used against Israel -- Israeli military sources said soldiers encountered Palestinian gunfire and returned fire. There were no casualties on the Israeli side, military sources said. One member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades died in the exchange of fire, the military sources said. A doctor at Shifa Hospital confirmed a 32-year-old died in the fighting. Video from The Associated Press also showed several wounded Palestinians brought to Shifa Hospital. IDF: 5 senior militants arrestedMeanwhile, Israeli security sources said Sunday that Israeli forces arrested five senior Palestinian militants, including the military commander of Islamic Jihad in Bethlehem and his deputy. Special army forces arrested Islamic Jihad military chief Issa Batta, 31, his deputy, Nidal Halif, also 31, and Issmayil Hamdan, a 35-year-old senior Tanzim activist, in a cave near Beit Sahour, east of Bethlehem, the sources said. They said the three, all residents of Bethlehem, had in their possession two pistols, an automatic weapon and an anti-missile launcher. All three were wanted for their alleged roles in planning and carrying out suicide attacks, car bombing attacks and shooting attacks that killed six Israelis and wounded dozens more, the sources said. Earlier, Israeli army forces arrested Ahmad Ibrahim Dadi, a senior Islamic Jihad militant, in the village of Araba southwest of Jenin on the West Bank. The IDF said Dadi dispatched a suicide bomber in January 2003 who killed one Israeli and wounded five others in Gadish. IDF forces also arrested Rafik Sharif Al'awi, a 20-year-old Tanzim militant who the IDF said intended to carry out a suicide bombing attack in the Kassba of Nablus in the West Bank, according to an IDF spokesman. In the West Bank Saturday, clashes between Palestinians and Israeli troops left a 19-year-old Palestinian man dead near the Askar refugee camp near Nablus, the Palestine Red Crescent said. Israeli media reported the man had been throwing stones at a tank and said three other teens were hurt. The high-level security talks in Jerusalem on Saturday night were described by one Palestinian source as "positive." No decisions were made, the source said, but "momentum is building," and the sides could hold another meeting in the next few days, as soon as Sunday. At the three-hour meeting were Israeli Maj. Gen. Amos Gilad, coordinator for Israeli activities in the territories, and Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan. An Egyptian delegation met Sunday with the leaders of several Palestinian militant groups, including Hamas, in an effort to negotiate a cease-fire. (Full story) Hamas, a Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist organization that has refused to heed calls for a cease-fire, is labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. The group's military wing has acknowledged terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and military personnel. Israel and the Palestinian Authority endorsed a road map for peace created by the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. Initial steps in the road map require Israel's dismantling of unauthorized settlement outposts and Palestinian efforts to crack down on terrorism. CNN correspondents Kelly Wallace and Matthew Chance, and producer Talal Abu Rahma, contributed to this report.
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