IDF kills Aksa operative in Ramallah

Army: Ala al-Aradi responsible for murder of truck driver Moshe Yohai in 2004.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, AP
Undercover IDF troops killed a wanted Palestinian terrorist on Monday in downtown Ramallah, security officials said. The Palestinians identified the dead man as Ala al-Aradi, 25, a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades who had eluded army troops for four years. The army said al-Aradi was responsible for the murder of Israeli truck driver Moshe Yohai who was shot dead in the village of Beit Rima in 2004. An IDF soldier was lightly wounded on Monday night by an anti-tank rocket that was fired at his unit operating near the Karni crossing in the Gaza Strip. Earlier, four Palestinians were killed in an IAF airstrike on central Gaza. The four men were standing on a street in the Shajaiyeh neighborhood of Gaza City when a missile hit them, witnesses said. The four were severely burned and dismembered, Palestinian doctors said. The IDF said that troops operating in the area shot and killed the armed Palestinians in an exchange of fire. Elsewhere, IDF troops shot and killed an apparently unarmed Palestinian civilian in the West Bank city of Jenin, the army and witnesses said Monday. Sabri Halil, 64, was shot late Sunday night by troops on patrol in the city. Witnesses said he was a local guard at a school and was shot in the heart after he aimed his flashlight at a passing car. He died on the spot. The army said its forces noticed a man on a rooftop holding what looked like a weapon when they opened fire at him. The army said the man probably was holding a flashlight and it launched in investigation into the incident.