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Israel Blast Refugee Camp, Palestinians Vow Surge In Uprising
by Judi Rever
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli helicopter gunships blasted a Palestinian refugee camp overnight in a fresh flare-up of violence near Bethlehem between Jewish and Arab neighbors, drawing a sharp rebuke from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
The pounding of the Aida camp, which wounded three Palestinians and torched two houses, coincided with calls by Palestinians and hardline Islamists for a surge in the nine-week uprising against the Jewish state.
But Israel was transfixed by another matter on Monday: the highly anticipated return to politics of Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu, who was barraged with questions upon his arrival back home after a brief speaking tour in the United States.
All eyes are on Netanyahu, the once discredited former prime minister, to see whether he will run in early elections against Barak, whose much-criticized handling of two months of violence with Palestinians is recasting Israel's political scene.
On Sunday, Israeli helicopters fired rockets on the refugee camp, from where Israeli military sources said Palestinians fired on soldiers guarding Rachel's Tomb, a strongly fortified Jewish shrine on the northern edge of Bethlehem.
Arafat, upon his return from Qatar, condemned the rocket attack and accused Israel of reneging on pledges to restore calm.
"It was a shock. We had agreed to cool it down, especially about Bethlehem, Beit Sahur, Beit Jala. There are holy cities," said an angry Arafat, brandishing an automatic weapon as he spoke to journalists in Gaza City.
The bombardment near the holy city - just three weeks before Christmas - followed what the Israeli army described as an attempt by armed Palestinians to storm the tomb, revered by Jews as the supposed resting place of the biblical matriarch Rachel.
A gunbattle raged in the area between Israeli troops and armed Palestinians for some three hours.
Bethlehem and surrounding villages have often been the scene of violent confrontations since late September, when Palestinians first unleashed an uprising against the Jewish state following bloody clashes at a disputed holy site in east Jerusalem.
Some 300 people, mostly Palestinians, have been sent to their graves in the fighting, which took on a dizzying pace in October and November, but has lessened within the last week.
On Monday, newspapers reported that the National and Islamic forces - a loose grouping of 13 Palestinian factions including Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad - called on Palestinians "to escalate their Intifada" uprising this weekend, to mark the anniversary of the beginning of the last major Intifada against Israel, from 1987 to 1993.
The coalition called on Arabs in the occupied territories to "hold days of rage with marches that start from all Palestinian cities and villages to confront the siege and confront the herds of [Jewish] settlers."
Some 7,000 settlers living among more than a million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been at the forefront of the current conflict, viewed by some as provocateurs of Palestinian rage, and by others as frequent victims of Palestinian bomb attacks.
On Monday, the Israeli army opened a new road for Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip, ploughing over Palestinian agricultural land in violation of 1993 Oslo peace accords.
Also Monday, the Israeli organization Peace Now said Israel had built 50% more Jewish homes in the Occupied Territories since the 1993 peace agreement, when the government implicitly agreed to freeze settlements.
A total of 2,830 out of 32,750 new homes were built during the Barak administration, Peace Now said.
With the peace process in ruins, Barak was forced last week to agree to early polls, in the hopes that he can salvage negotiations he brought to a screeching halt in October.
In what appeared to be a deliberate attempt to block Barak's efforts, the Israeli parliament voted on Monday on preliminary reading in favor of a bill preventing a prime minister without a parliamentary majority from signing any international accords.
The political machinations have opened the door for ex-Likud leader Netanayhu to return to the fray, after bowing out of politics in May 1999 when Barak whipped him at the polls.
The right-wing, sound-bite savvy politician is riding high in opinion polls which show him to be the favorite over both the Labor prime minister and current Likud party leader Ariel Sharon.
Netanyahu, though not clear about his intentions yet, has hinted he will take the bait.
"I have not yet made my decision, but I am close and I will announce it very soon because our situation is one that demands a decision," he told reporters on his arrival at Ben Gurion international airport.
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