RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Violence spread Wednesday from the volatile Gaza Strip to the West Bank, where Israeli troops shot dead four Palestinians in this usually placid city after a riot broke out during an Israeli arrest raid.The fighting in Ramallah, the Palestinians' administrative and commercial capital, was the most intense in the city since a massive Israeli military incursion into the West Bank four years ago when they laid siege to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's compound. Now forays by Israeli troops into the city center are rare, particularly during daylight hours.
For Palestinians already anxious about lawlessness and infighting in Gaza, a spread of violence into Ramallah represents a further erosion of security in daily life. Unlike Gaza, a deeply impoverished and devoutly religious militant stronghold, Ramallah is a secular and cosmopolitan city. It is home to a large middle class, including many intellectuals and Palestinians who hold U.S. citizenship.
The army said undercover Israeli troops entered the city to arrest Mohammed Shoubaki, who is believed to be a financier for the militant group Islamic Jihad. Arrests of militant figures by the Israeli army are common, but they almost always take place late at night or before dawn to avoid sparking a confrontation with the populace.
Witnesses said the trouble broke out when local youths spotted the troops, who were in plainclothes and driving a battered car with Palestinian plates. After the Israelis entered a building in search of Shoubaki, the youths surrounded the structure, disabled the undercover squad's vehicle and began throwing stones. In response, regular army units were sent in.
The melee, which began as a hail of bricks and chunks of concrete, quickly escalated into gunfire -- at a time when the city center was crowded with people leaving work and students emerging from schools. Shopkeepers hurriedly pulled down the heavy metal grates on their storefronts when the shooting began. An army spokeswoman, Capt. Noa Meir, said soldiers at first used tear gas and rubber-coated bullets to contain the crowd, but switched to live ammunition after gunmen mixed in with stone-throwers fired on them.
The Israeli raid, in which Shoubaki was taken into custody, drew a sharp response from senior aides to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose headquarters are only a short distance from the scene of the fighting. "Israel is determined to stage provocations in a manner that will take us back to a cycle of violence," said Nabil Abu Rdeineh, an Abbas adviser.
All four of the dead were believed to have been armed and taking part in the riot, according to the Israeli military. Hospital officials said more than a dozen of those injured were passersby. It was not clear why the army chose this time and place to arrest Shoubaki, who is based in the northern West Bank town of Kalkiliya. He is suspected of funneling money to Islamic Jihad, which has carried out eight suicide bombings in Israel over the past 18 months.
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