Clashes leave 2 Palestinians dead

IDF kills operative behind Kedumim bombing, man throwing Molotov cocktail.

By YAAKOV KATZ
al aksa man gun 298.88 (photo credit: AP [file])
al aksa man gun 298.88
(photo credit: AP [file])
A considerable IDF force entered Nablus Wednesday afternoon for an arrest operation. As soon as they entered the city, mobs gathered and started throwing rocks at army jeeps. A man who was on the verge of throwing a Molotov cocktail was shot and killed by the troops. Earlier Wednesday, IDF troops shot and killed Daoud Katouni, a senior Tanzim terror suspect in a refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus. Katouni, IDF sources suspect, was behind the suicide bombing outside the settlement of Kedumim in March in which four Israelis were killed, and was in the midst of planning additional suicide attacks against Israel. Katouni was also behind the thwarted suicide bombing last month, when IDF troops caught two Palestinians carrying an explosive belt on the way to a target inside Israel. Early in the morning, troops from the Golani Brigade entered Nablus and spotted two armed Palestinians. Troops opened fire, killing one and wounding the second, but before they could identify the dead and the wounded, Palestinian medics evacuated the two from the scene. Hours later, the Palestinians revealed that the dead was Katouni. IDF sources described the operation as successful, claiming that Katouni was behind a large number of terror alerts originating in Nablus.