Mideast violence mounts on the eve of Bush's visit

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-01-03 21:17

Mo'awyea Hassanein, chief of emergency in the Palestinian ministry of health said that Sami Hamdan Fayyad, 25, was killed, where his mother Karima Fayyad, his brother Ahmed and his sister Asma were all killed.

Sami's wife and his 3-year-old daughter were seriously injured, said Hassanein, adding that 25 people were injured, including his father Hamdan Fayyad.

Earlier on Wednesday, an Islamic Hamas militant was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a group of militants that were confronting the Israeli army ground forces rolling into the area.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Abbas told reporters that the ongoing Israeli military escalation against the Palestinians, mainly in the Gaza Strip, "aims at showing President Bush that Israel fights Palestinian terrorism."

He condemned the killing of 12 Palestinians within the past 24 hours, and also storming the city of Nablus and detaining 18 people. Four of those killed in the Gaza Strip are civilians and eight are militants.

Although the city of Nablus in northern West Bank has been under the full security control of Palestinian National Authority (PNA) for three months, the Israeli army forces stormed the city saying the aim is to detain wanted militants.

"Israeli and Palestinian leaders go to join international conference, agree to resume talks and come back to the region to implement what they agree upon," said Gaza academic Abu A'shour.

He added "The talks begin, then Israel starts actions like expanding settlements and carry out military actions in the Palestinian territories. Such Israeli behavior blocks any progress in the talks and damage the positive atmosphere of the talks."

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