Nablus, Aug 26: Israeli undercover troops snatched two wounded Palestinian gunmen from their West Bank hospital beds in a pre-dawn raid today, the latest Israeli military operation in the wake of a deadly bus bombing a week ago.
The troops knocked on the door of the intensive care unit, imposed curfew on the patients and doctors and carried the two men - members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs brigade, a militant group loosely affiliated with Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction - out of the ward and into military ambulances, a doctor, who spoke on condition on anonymity, said.
The men - Othman Younis, 27, and Fahid Bani-Odeh, 25 - are in Israel's Beilinson Hospital and being treated for moderate injuries, military sources said.
Israel accuses Younis of helping to plan several attacks in which at least 10 people were killed, including an August 12 suicide bombing which came in the midst of a ceasefire declared by the militant groups on June 29.
The truce collapsed last Thursday after Israel killed a top-ranking Hamas political leader in retaliation for a Jerusalem bus bombing a week ago in which 21 people were killed.



Since the bombing, Israel has killed two senior Hamas members - and another five activists in the group - in pinpoint missile strikes which marked the renewal of Israel's policy to hunt down and kill militants. Chief of Staff Lt Gen Moshe Yaalon has made clear that all members of the militant group are targets for "liquidation."


Bureau Report