Jericho – Ma'an – Police operating at the Allenby Bridge border crossing near Jericho detained 11 Palestinians they called fugitives apparently trying to leave the country over the past week.

Their names were not released in a statement sent from the department's media office.

Meanwhile, a family was evacuated from its home in the Old City of Hebron Friday night after an over-used heater shorted, setting the home ablaze, rescue workers reported.

Neighbors called the police, who said they rushed to the Bab Az-Zawieyah area home, where they found a mother and her two children trapped by the fire.

Palestinian firefighters were called to the scene to put out the fire. They removed flammable objects from the fire's path, and doused the flaming rooms with water.

Each year home fires erupt in Palestine as the result of over-used or unattended electric or domestic-gas heaters. Commenting on the first cold-weather home-fire of the year, the Palestinian police department warned locals to take caution when considering home heating this season.