By KUNA
Gaza : Israeli troops advanced into the heart of the West Bank town of Qabatia on Tuesday and burst into houses of two ranking members of Islamic Jihad who were not at home when the soldiers stormed their homes.
According to a statement by Islamic Jihad, the assaulting troops, backed by more than 20 military vehicles, rumbled into Qabatia via several axes and sealed off the houses of the leading member of the movemenet, Abdel Fattah Khazimeh, and Alaa Abul-Rab, the commander of Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic organization.
The troops searched and extensively damaged inner parts of the two houses and warned their families that the pair should surrender to the Israeli authorities or face death, the statement said.
The Israeli soldiers searched for other activists of the group throughout the town, arresting a member, named Kamal Kameel.
The group said its fighters resisted the assaulting troops with gunfire and hand-grenades.
“Continous search operations against our strugglers will not force us to renounce the option of resistance and jihad (holy war) till liberaton of all Palestinian soil,” the Islamic movement vowed in the statement.
Islamic Jihad is one of two mainstream Palestinian Islamic organizations operating in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It is responsible for recurring hit-and-run, bombings and rocket attacks against Israeli forces and targets.