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Arafat Responds To Israeli Raids
GAZA CITY, March 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinian teenagers Thursday as fierce clashes erupted in the Gaza Strip a day after Israeli helicopter gunships blasted bases of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Force 17.
A third Palestinian, a member of the preventive security forces in the Gaza Strip, was also killed overnight by Israeli forces, the army and Palestinian security sources said.
Arafat condemned the Israeli air strikes - which killed a Force 17 member and a woman and injured more than 60 - as part of a deliberate strategy by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon against the Palestinians, saying they were "neither the first confrontation, nor the first war nor the first escalation.
"But, I tell you that not the blockade, not the uranium shells, not the other banned weapons, not the bombings of our bases and houses can hinder our people's determination," Arafat said.
"The Israeli aggression is the beginning of the 100-day Sharon plan," he said, referring to Palestinian charges that the hardline Israeli leader has mapped out a plan to crack down against the six-month-old Intifada, or uprising.
But he told reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah on his return from a two-day Arab summit in Amman: "Whatever they do, we are still here and we will stay here," vowing that the Intifada would continue until the Palestinian flag flies over Jerusalem, "capital of the future Palestinian state."
"The Palestinian people will continue with force and determination until the Palestinian flag is raised above the walls, mosques and churches of Jerusalem, the capital of the future Palestinian state, whether [people] like it or not," Arafat said
Asked by reporters about Sharon's remarks branding him a "terrorist", Arafat responded: "Ask Sabra and Shatila," referring to the two Palestinian refugee camps near Beirut where Lebanese Christian militias massacred hundreds in 1982 during Israel's invasion of the country, during which Sharon was defense minister.
Also, Ahmed Helis, secretary general of Arafat's Fatah faction threatened attacks inside Israel if the Israeli army enters areas under Palestinian self-rule.
"Every point in Israel will become a legitimate target for our fighters if Israel attacks our cities," he said.
Separately, Palestinian parliament speaker Ahmed Qorei, visiting the Force 17 base targeted in the Israeli raids, said "this aggression will not prevent us from continuing our struggle to reach our ends."
"Only Israel will assume the results of this aggression. The threats don't scare us," said Qorei, a longtime negotiator with Israel.
General Abdelrazek al-Majaida, the head of Palestinian public security for the Gaza Strip, accused the Israeli army "of preparing to launch a major offensive against the Palestinian territories", and also warned against any move "to enter the Palestinian territories."
Meanwhile, in the West Bank town of Hebron, which has been seething since the killing Monday of a Jewish child Shalhevet Pass, Israeli tanks shelled an Arab district Thursday but it was not immediately clear if there were any injuries.
The Abu Sneinah Arab neighborhood overlooks the Jewish enclave in the divided city where the child was killed on Monday, and the Israeli army said its forces had opened fire when they saw two armed Palestinians entering a house in Abu Sneinah "which is known as a place where shots have been fired on the Jewish district."
The army on Thursday afternoon re-instituted a curfew in the Hebron area that had been lifted for several hours to allow Palestinians to buy food, a military source said.
Earlier, Palestinian witnesses reported that a Palestinian shop near the Jewish quarter in the Israeli-controlled sector of Hebron had been torched by Jewish settlers.
Settlers rampaged through Hebron and Abu Sneinah, thought to be the source of Monday's fatal shots killing the child. On Tuesday night, witnesses said a band of settlers torched seven cars and at least five Palestinian shops and shot at a fire truck at the entrance to Abu Sneinah.
Hebron is a flashpoint of frequent violence, where some 400 extremist settlers live under Israeli army protection in the center of the Palestinian-dominated city.
Dozens of Palestinian youths confronted Israeli troops at the Erez crossing between the northern Gaza Strip after Israel launched air raids Wednesday in retaliation for a spate of bomb attacks in Israel; the first military strikes by Sharon's three-week old government.
A group of about 50 was hurling stones at Israeli forces just a few meters (yards) away, shouting: "Israelis out, Israelis out," and setting fire to Israeli flags, said an AFP correspondent at the scene.
Mohammed Salman Abu Shamla, 18, was hit by bullets in the head and the heart when Israeli troops fired live rounds and tear gas at the youths, while Mahmud Khaled Abu Shahada, 15, was shot dead with a bullet to the heart, hospital sources said.
Another 13 Palestinians were injured, two of them seriously.
The army said it had initially fired rubber bullets (actually rubber-coated steel bullets) and tear gas at the demonstrators throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails but used live bullets when a group of youths stormed the Israeli-controlled checkpoint at Erez.
"Their movement was a danger to the soldiers so we fired live ammunition at their feet. We acknowledge that at least one Palestinian was hit in the leg," an army spokesman said, adding that the army was not aware of anyone being killed.
Also, north of El-Bireh, four Palestinians were injured when Israeli soldiers responded to a group of 50 stone-throwers with rubber-coated steel bullets, an AFP journalist said.
In addition, Hossam Ghanem al-Kranz, a 23-year-old member of the Palestinian preventive security forces in the Gaza Strip, was shot dead near the flashpoint Jewish settlement of Netzarim overnight, Palestinian security sources said.
"A Palestinian wearing the uniform of Force 17 and armed with a Kalashnikov was killed by Israeli soldiers overnight after he opened fire on their position," an army spokesman said.
The latest deaths bring to 456 the number of people killed as a direct result of the six-month-old Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, against Israeli occupation, triggered by a visit by Sharon in a late September to a site in Jerusalem holy to both Jews and Muslims.
Those killed include 373 Palestinians, 69 Israelis, 13 Israeli Arabs and one German.
In Ramallah, several thousand Palestinians joined the funeral for the woman killed during Wednesday's raids, singing nationalistic songs and chanting slogans.
Another 1,000 Palestinians took part in a mock funeral for the bomber who died in an explosion Tuesday in Jerusalem, setting fire to a model Israeli bus and calling on Hamas to carry out more attacks against Israel.
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