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Israel Uses Helicopter Gunships As Barak Coalition Effort Fails
CAIRO (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli helicopter gunships launched strikes Tuesday on the command centers of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in what observers here say is a serious escalation of violence in the Palestinian Occupied Territories.
Israeli helicopter missile attacks, which injured five Palestinians, did not cause any deaths, but revealed a harder line in tactics directed towards Palestinians in a bid to stop what Israel calls "a growing guerrilla war."
The Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz reported on Tuesday that the attacks were apparently in response to the death of two Israelis believed killed by Arafat's Tanzim militia.
Arafat remained defiant in face of the escalation and said his people will continue the uprising. "All these things cannot shake one eyelash from the eyelashes of a Palestinian child holding a Palestinian stone to defend holy Jerusalem... the capital of [the] Palestinian state," Arafat told Voice of Palestine Radio.
"And whoever dislikes it, let him come and drink the sea of Gaza," Arafat added as he went to visit the rocketed headquarters of his Force 17 security service in Gaza.
A senior Israeli commander in Gaza, Shlomo Dagan, confirmed the attacks launched by the Israeli army were in direct response to a wave of "guerrilla" attacks which killed three Israelis in the past four days.
"We know who the perpetrators are. We know the address of those who send them. And we say to them: beware," said Colonel Raanam Gissin, and army spokesman.
The gunship fired missiles at three empty Fatah buildings in a new strategy aimed at pinpointing strikes.
The Fatah is an umbrella faction that encompasses the Tanzim.
"Since the Palestinians are beginning to wage something that approximates a guerrilla war, our helicopter attack was a signal that if there is a guerrilla war, we have to answer to it," Israeli's Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said.
Sneh described rocketing Fatah buildings in West Bank towns of Nablus and Ramallah and of Fatah's elite Force 17 militia as a "warning." He asserted Israel would not allow the Palestinians to conduct Lebanese-style guerrilla warfare.
The Lebanese Islamic resistance movement Hezbollah used to launch daily attacks against Israeli occupation forces; a tactic credited with ending Israel's 22-year occupation of South Lebanon last May.
The helicopter attacks have raised fears that the new Israeli strategy in dealing with the Palestinians could be long term. "The Israeli aggressions against our people is escalating in accordance with Barak's plans," said Tayeb Abdel-Rahim, a senior Arafat aide.
"This provocation will only increase our people's steadfastness and determination to confront these attacks," Abdel-Rahim added.
The exchange of tough words by both Israeli and Palestinian sides has threatened to blow the possibility of resuming peace talks that Barak "timed out" a week ago after the failure of several agreements to reduce the violence and tension in the region.
Barak expressed hopes for a peace deal with Palestinians. After Barak's failure to forge a coalition with hard-line Likud leader Ariel Sharon, the latter expressed his strong opposition to Barak's government.
"What is left is to work as fast as we can to find a replacement government to that of Mr Barak," Sharon said in a radio interview.
"We cannot support Barak and his failed government and we will make every effort to replace him. It's clear already that it will take another month, another few months, but these are already the last grasps of the government," Sharon affirmed.
Barak's refusal to grant Sharon a veto right over future peace talks increased tensions between them. "Apparently, he is not fit to lead the country," said Sharon whose provocative visit to the al-Aqsa mosque complex on September 28th lead to the current Palestinian uprising.
As clashes continued in the West Bank and Gaza, Israeli acting Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami continued a tour that started in Paris, and would include visits to London and Washington to negotiate the resumption of peace talks.
As Israeli helicopters rocketed Fatah's headquarters, Israel's Chief Peace Negotiator, Gilead Sher, asserted that Israel was ready to consider the idea of reviving the peace process initiated by U.S. President Bill Clinton.
Clinton has invited both Barak and Arafat to Washington for separate peace talks, but no dates have been fixed as yet.
The resumption of peace negotiations is facing many obstacles, mainly the political instability in Israel and the eruption of violence that continues now into a second month in which more than 145 Arabs have been killed.
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