Nabil Abu Kibtah, a senior Tanzim commander in Yatta, near Hebron, suspected of planning shooting attacks in the Hebron area,was arrested by special IDF forces on Thursday morning.

According to reports, the troops surrounded his home and called on him to surrender. When he failed to comply, a bulldozer began demolishing his home, and Abu Kibtah, who had hidden in a well, gave up.

Soldiers also arrested a Hamas fugitive in Harbata, northwest of Ramallah. In his home, soldiers found a gun, ammunition, and explosives that were later blown up by Border Police sappers. In Beit Rima, north of Bethlehem, a PFLP fugitive was arrested, and in Tsurif, west of Bethlehem, four fugitives, three of them Islamic Jihad men, were arrested.

On Thursday evening a bomb was thrown at soldiers in Nablus, and shots were fired at soldiers near Kadim, east of Jenin. Shots were also fired at a vehicle near Beit Hagai in the Hebron Hills. In the Gaza Strip, a soldier was lightly wounded when two anti-tank rockets were fired at two IDF posts in Gush Katif.

Shots were fired at an IDF post near Rafah and at an IDF base in Gush Katif. Two mortar shells were fired at communities in the northern Gaza Strip and in Gush Katif. A factory in the Neveh Dekalim industrial zone was damaged. A bomb was detonated near an IDF jeep patrolling south of the Kissufim crossing, and the vehicle was damaged.

In the morning, the Karni-Netzarim road was closed after a bomb found by soldiers was blown up by sappers.

The IDF permitted 5,000 Palestinians from Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip to attend prayers at Al-Aksa Mosque marking the end of Ramadan. (© 1995-2003, The Jerusalem Post 11/20/03)