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More than 100 Israeli tanks swept into the West Bank city of Nablus and opened fire with machineguns early Friday, killing two Palestinians, witnesses said, in apparent retaliation for a Jerusalem bombing.
Tanks and armored vehicles, which had formed part of a force that had kept Nablus surrounded and under curfew for weeks, pushed deep into the Palestinian-ruled northern West Bank city under cover of darkness, the Palestinian witnesses said.
The massive incursion was launched two days after militants from the Islamic group Hamas detonated a bomb in a cafeteria at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, killing five Americans and two Israelis.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had vowed to strike back hard at Hamas targets.
Palestinian security and hospital sources said Israeli forces killed a Hamas member in his home in a village on the outskirts of Nablus and shot dead one other Palestinian in the center of the city.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said: "For operational reasons, we have no comment at this time."
(Xinhua News Agency August 2, 2002)
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