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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Palestinian Teen Killed in Gun Battle |
| 2005-11-19 |
| Two rival clans and Palestinian police exchanged fire in a dispute over land in the area of a former Israeli settlement in Gaza, killing a 17-year-old civilian and wounding five people, Palestinian officials said Saturday. The firefight Friday evening was the first violent clash over former settlement-area land since Israel left the Gaza Strip in September. After the fatal shooting, dozens of people, including gunmen, vandalized a police station in the nearby town of Khan Younis and set two police cruisers on fire, said the governor of the area, Hosni Zourab. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has said the former settlement land would be used for the public good, including housing projects, universities and nature reserves. Private land claims will be examined, but plots expropriated by Israel for the settlements will not automatically be returned to their owners, officials have said. Palestinian security sources said Saturday that the half-acre plot of land was in the public domain and located in the area of the dismantled settlement of Neve Dekalim. But without clear-cut maps of the area, it was not immediately clear whether the land formerly was part of Neve Dekalim, or nearby, they said. Before Israel's pullout from Gaza, settlers and the Israeli military controlled about one-fifth of the crowded coastal strip. The clash over land underscored Abbas' difficulties in imposing order in chaotic Gaza. Two clans staked competing claims to the land at issue in Friday's dispute, Palestinian officials said. One of the clans, the Astals, had fenced off the area. When police came to tear down the fence, a firefight erupted. Seventeen-year-old Naef Astal was killed and five people were wounded, including two policemen. Police arrested three people and took them to a lockup in Khan Younis. Later Friday, dozens of people broke into the police station, demanding the release of the detainees, then vandalized the building, police said. |
| Posted by:ed |
| #5 Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has said the former settlement land would be used for the public good, including housing projects, universities and nature reserves. Private land claims will be examined, but plots expropriated by Israel for the settlements will not automatically be returned to their owners, officials have said. Bwahahahaha ....a Paleo nature reserve must be a shooting range, with civilian shields? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-11-19 20:10 |
| #4 ... dozens of people, including gunmen, vandalized a police station in the nearby town of Khan Younis and set two police cruisers on fire Palestine has come to France. But, also, France has come to Palestine. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2005-11-19 15:01 |
| #3 Later Friday, dozens of people broke into the police station, demanding the release of the detainees, then vandalized the building, police said. Pretty sad that these Paleo "cops" can't keep a dozen people from going through their local headquarters and ransacking it. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-11-19 14:55 |
| #2 It's about time for Abbas to understand that either the gun barrels had better be pointed at disruptive elements within Palestinian society or else those very same muzzles will soon be pointed at him. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2005-11-19 13:51 |
| #1 These oppressed people, not murderous Thugistenians, were not properly pointed at Israel. |
| Posted by: Bardo 2005-11-19 12:33 |