Agence France Presse
October 5, 2001

HEBRON, West Bank, Oct 5 -- Five Palestinians were killed and 15 wounded in a dawn incursion Friday by Israeli tanks backed by helicopters into Palestinian-controlled areas of the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron, police and hospital sources said.

Witnesses said the five were killed as a helicopter blasted a house with a missile. Around 20 tanks and armoured vehicles were also taking part in the operation. An Israeli army spokesman confirmed that troops had moved into two Hebron neighborhoods, Al-Sheikh and Abu Sneineh, and said the army would remain on the site "as long as necessary."

Police said five Palestinian men aged between 23 and 48 had been killed.

The dead were named as Hazem Amrou, 27, Kassem Abu Afifa, 48, Raed Abu Daud, 23, Ziad Kafisha, 27, and Nidal Kafisha, 35.

The army spokesman said the incursion targeted areas from where he said Palestinians had fired on Israeli settlers living in Hebron on Wednesday and Thursday.

Around 400 Jewish settlers live in a heavily-guarded compound in the centre of Hebron, surrounded by 120,000 Palestinians.

Hebron, which has sites holy to Jews and Muslims alike, has seen some of the worst violence since the beginning of the Palestinian uprising 12 months ago.

The latest deaths bring to 861 the number of people killed since September 28. These include 664 Palestinians and 174 Israelis.

On Wednesday, Palestinian gunmen sparked panic among thousands of Jewish pilgrims who had flocked to the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the centre of Hebron for the holiday of Sukkot, the Feast of the Tabernacles.

Israeli troops the next day shot dead one Palestinian and wounded three others in Hebron.

The Jewish settlers of Hebron, considered among the most extremist in the West Bank, have been demanding for months that the army occupy the hilltop districts of Al-Sheikh and Abu Sneineh to prevent Palestinian gunfire.