Israeli raids take a toll on West Bank civilians

[Resistance]

By Said Ghazali and Dan Ephron | Boston Globe

NABLUS, West Bank -- Naim al-Araj doesn't bother fighting the insomnia. Instead, for three weeks now he has left his bed in the middle of each night, dressed himself, and walked to the cemetery of the Balata refugee camp to cry over his son Mohammed's grave.

Israeli troops shot the 6-year-old dead at the entrance to his home in Balata on Dec. 21, three days after troops invaded Nablus and the adjacent camps. Since then, 15 other Palestinians have been killed in the largest Israeli incursion in the West Bank in more than a year.

Israeli troops have spent much of that time moving from neighborhood to neighborhood, searching for militants in a city the army describes as a breeding ground for suicide terrorists.

But while at least one bomber has been caught and some weapons and explosives have been found, most casualties in the latest Israeli assault have been civilians. And all 180,000 residents of Nablus and its environs have been kept under curfew during the past three weeks.