Israeli troops kill 5 Palestinian militants

Israeli troops killed five Palestinian militants on the West Bank today in a move that could set back attempts to secure a cease-fire with armed groups firing rockets from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry also announced sanctions against Al Jazeera, the Arabic language news channel, in response to what it charged was biased coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israeli soldiers and border police launched a combined operation this afternoon in Bethlehem to capture Mohammed Shehadeh, a senior West Bank military leader of Islamic Jihad.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said the soldiers spotted Shehadeh and three other men in a car, concluded they were armed and opened fire, killing all four.

Three of the men were members of Islamic Jihad’s military wing, the militant group said.The fourth, according to Palestinian sources, was Ahmad Balboul, 48, a senior leader in the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the militant wing of the Fatah party, which controls the Palestinian Authority.

Shehadeh, 48, was accused by Israeli officials of planning a series of attacks, including a car bombing in Jerusalem in 2000 and a suicide bombing in the Jerusalem Hilton in 2001. Israel launched a raid to capture him last week but failed, demolishing his family home in the attempt.

“He was involved in extensive terrorist activity from the earliest days of the intifada,” said the army spokeswoman, who requested anonymity.

An Islamic Jihad spokesman in the Gaza Strip confirmed that Shehadeh and two others were part of its military wing.

Earlier in the day, a separate operation near the West Bank city of Tulkarm killed another militant allied with the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.

The killings come amid ongoing efforts by Egypt to mediate a cease-fire in Gaza. Islamic Jihad and Hamas, which controls the coastal strip, are most responsible for the periodic rocket launches into Israeli territory.

Islamic Jihad representatives have been taking part in the talks, and any lasting cease-fire agreement would have to come with the consensus of its leadership.

Abu Ahmed, a spokesman in Gaza City for Islamic Jihad, said today’s killings showed the futility of negotiations with Israel.

“The only option left is the option of resistance,” he said. “We will respond with all our power.”

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said any cease-fire would depend on a complete halt to all Israeli operations in both Gaza and the West Bank.

The sanctions announced against Al Jazeera reportedly include an embargo on Israeli officials appearing on the channel and a ban on its reporters entering Israeli government buildings.

Efforts to reach the Israeli Foreign Ministry for comment were unsuccessful, but Deputy Foreign Minister Majali Wahabe told Army Radio that Al Jazeera presented consistently biased reports of the recent Israeli army operation in the Gaza Strip that killed more than 100 Palestinians.

“These reports are untrustworthy and they hurt us, and they arouse people to terrorist activities,” Wahabe said.

The channel’s Jerusalem Bureau Chief Walid Omary called the accusations of bias “rubbish” and said he hadn’t officially been informed of any sanctions.

“We will continue to work and continue to invite Israeli officials to the studio,” Omary said via telephone from Qatar.

After a Palestinian gunman killed eight religious students in a Jerusalem yeshiva last Thursday, Al Jazeera reported live from the scene. The news crew had to be escorted away by police in the face of a hostile crowd, Omary said.

“We broadcast the reality and the reality is ugly – both in Gaza and at the yeshiva,” he said.

Since its debut in 1996, Al Jazeera, which is partially funded by the Qatari government, has faced accusations of bias from both Israel and a host of Arab governments.

The Iraqi government has repeatedly sought to ban the channel or limit its reporters’ activities. Last May, an Al Jazeera journalist in Egypt was sentenced to six months in jail for “harming the country’s reputation” while working on a story about torture in police stations. The jail term was later overturned by an appeals court.

ashraf.khalil@latimes.com

Special correspondents Maher Abukhater in Ramallah and Rushdi abu Alouf in Gaza City contributed to this report.