950825

Israeli troops kill

two Hamas militants

in Hebron

HEBRON: Israeli troops killed two Hamas Islamic militants in a gunfight after they trapped them in a house in the West Bank town of Hebron on Friday, Palestinians and Israeli security sources said.

After carting off the bodies, soldiers razed the house to the ground with bulldozers, witnesses said.

The Hebron clash came two days after Israel said it had captured many but not all members of a West Bank Hamas network responsible for a bus bombing in Jerusalem that killed five people and a similar attack near Tel Aviv in July.

Security sources said the two men killed in Hebron -- Ibrahim al-Qawasmi and Nader Shehadeh -- were not part of the bomber group but attached to a different Hamas unit.

Ribhi Sultan, the owner of the house where the clash occurred, said that before dawn on Friday two gunmen burst into his home. Soldiers surrounded the building. Sultan and his family fled the house.

Witnesses said there was an exchange of gunfire between the militants and troops. Hundreds of soldiers took up positions on rooftops in the area. Security sources said a curfew was imposed on Hebron.

Palestinian witnesses said after a time the shooting stopped and troops brought two bulldozers to the site. Soldiers ordered Sultan into the house to open the windows and doors.

Troops removed the two bodies, security sources said.

Journalists were then allowed to approach the building. Blood and bits of brain could be seen at the entrance. Later the bulldozers moved in and knocked down the house, in the process churning up about a third of a hectare of land planted with trees.

Israeli troops hunting guerrillas routinely use bulldozers and even rockets to destroy buildings in which they believe wanted Palestinians are hiding.

Israeli military censors prevented publication of reports of the incident for several hours.

Hebron is a flashpoint of Jewish-Arab violence. In one of the worst incidents a Jewish settler from nearby Kiryat Arba settlement shot dead 29 Arabs at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a site holy to Moslems and Jews, in February 1994.

It is also a stronghold of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, which leads violent opposition to the 1993 Israel-PLO peace deal.

In bombings against Israel by Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group more than 80 people have been killed since the peace deal.

The attacks have slowed peace moves. Israel and the PLO are still negotiating expanding Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank, which should have begun more than a year ago.-Reuter