Slaughterer israeli forces break into Hebron after killing an Israeli officer

Hebron (Al Khalil)- israeli soldiers early Tuesday blocked main roads and erected military checkpoints in two villages near Hebron, the day after an Israeli police officer was killed by Palestinian gunmen near the West Bank city, locals said.

Eyewitnesses told a loacal agency that israeli forces launched large-scale inspection raids in Idhna west of Hebron and in the nearby town of Tarqumiya, the area in which unidentified gunmen fired at an israeli vehicle Monday, killing one and injuring two.

Locals said that Idhna “looked like a closed military zone as nobody was allowed to move even in bypaths.”

Additionally, israeli forces erected checkpoints at the northern entrance of Hebron, inspecting Palestinian passersby and passengers, witnesses said.

The man who was killed in the Monday attack was a police officer from the town of Modiin in central Israel, an Israeli security source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Dozens of army vehicles fanned out into nearby Palestinian villages, and a security barrier was erected at the main entrance to Hebron, the largest city in the West Bank, according to an AFP photographer.

The flashpoint city of Hebron is home to nearly 200,000 Palestinians. There are some 80 settler homes in the center of town housing about 700 Jews who live under heavy Israeli army protection.

The Palestinian Hamas movement ruling Gaza, and fellow Islamist movement Islamic Jihad praised the attack, linking it to recent unrest in the flashpoint Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem’s Old City.

“Hamas praises the heroic Hebron operation and considers it a result of the (Israeli) occupation’s oppression and crimes against our people and holy places, including the Al-Aqsa mosque,” a statement said.

Islamic Jihad released a similar statement, hailing the attack and linking it to “settlers appropriating the blessed Al-Aqsa mosque.”

But neither group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Nine Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since January 1 in the West Bank, where around 350,000 israelis live in settlements considered illegal by the international community.

Sixty Palestinians have been killed by israeli forces since the US-backed Israel-PLO peace talks were relaunched in July.