Скачать или смотреть WEST BANK: RAMALLAH: VIOLENCE CONTINUES

(12 Oct 2000) English/Nat
Two Israeli soldiers were killed and two more were held in a Palestinian police station in the West Bank on Thursday after an enraged mob attacked them.
Witnesses said at least one of the bodies was paraded through the streets.
The deaths of the reserve soldiers were sure to dramatically ratchet up the tensions as U-N chief Kofi Annan and other diplomats attempted to calm the violence that has left more than 90 people dead over the past two weeks.
The soldiers, dressed in civilian clothes and driving a civilian car, apparently made a wrong turn and inadvertently ended up in the town of Ramallah, a flashpoint for recent violence, military officials said.
The troops were immediately rushed to a nearby police station, but when word of the capture spread, a huge crowd of Palestinians stormed the police station.
Palestinian forces tried to keep the mob at bay, but the crowd, including some armed with guns, surged to the second floor where the Israelis were held, killing two of them.
The attack on the soldiers raised grave questions about Annan's efforts to broker a three-way truce.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We don't know the whole facts there. But we still learning what happened. It quite clear it's a severe development. It looks like as if there was a lynch there with people, Israelis that were held by the Palestinian authority, later on were given to the mob, to the Palestinian mob. What exactly happened, how many of them, what the situation, we don't know and I will not go into details unless we know the whole facts and what we can say right now is that we regard it as a very severe development, we put the entire blame on Yasser Arafat, he ignited the Middle East. He is heading towards a conflict here, an armed conflict."
SUPER CAPTION: Nachman Shai, Israeli government spokesman
Throughout the Palestinians areas, security forces braced for possible Israeli retaliation, though Israel did not specify what action it would take.
In Ramallah, normally a bustling commercial center, streets were deserted at midday after Palestinian police urged residents over loudspeakers to go to their homes.

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