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Israeli Helicopters Raid Gaza Strip
JERUSALEM, April 3 (News Agencies) - Israeli helicopter gunships bombarded targets throughout the Gaza Strip on Tuesday for the second time in less than a week, sparking fears of a regional conflict.
At least 60 Palestinians were wounded in the attacks, including five seriously in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, hospital sources said, drawing renewed Palestinian calls for international protection and warnings of a further escalation in violence.
Hardline Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel had no choice but to act to protect its citizens, charging that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was not doing enough to prevent anti-Israeli attacks during the spiral of violence that has gripped the region for more than six months.
"The Palestinian Authority is not working to prevent attacks and is leaving Israel with no choice but to act tenaciously and vigorously to frustrate terrorist attacks and protect Israeli citizens' security," he said in a statement issued by his office.
The areas targeted included Rafah and Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, as well as Gaza City.
A top aide to Arafat reiterated Palestinian calls for international protection.
"This shelling shows that nothing is out of bounds for the Israeli side, that it has no red lines and uses all kinds of weapons against the unarmed Palestinian people," presidential secretary Tayeb Abdel Rahim told Voice of Palestine radio.
"We ask Arab and international forces to support the right of the Palestinian people to international protection in the face of this continuing aggression," he added.
Arafat's top advisor Nabil Abu Rudeina also condemned the latest Israeli "aggression" and warned it could only lead to an escalation of violence.
"This is a continuation of the policy of assassination and will lead to more tensions and more violence," Abu Rudeina told Voice of Palestine, referring to Palestinian charges that Israel has liquidated some 20 activists accused of anti-Israeli attacks since the uprising erupted on September 28th.
However, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer said "the targets had been carefully chosen, in order to spare civilians".
The helicopters struck Force 17 posts, and witnesses said Arafat's seafront residence was damaged, with some windows broken, when a rocket hit a nearby building which houses several Palestinian security forces.
Last Wednesday, Israel carried out similar strikes against targets of Arafat's elite Force 17 bodyguard in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Ramallah following a string of deadly anti-Israeli attacks.
It was the first such attack since Sharon took office a month ago on a pledge to restore security to Israel after more than six months of deadly unrest and crack down on the Palestinian Intifada, or uprising.
The Gaza strikes came just a few hours after three mortar shells were fired at the Jewish settlement of Atzmona in the southern Gaza Strip which left a 10-month-old child seriously wounded and a woman lightly injured.
The mortar attack occurred not far from the refugee camp in Rafah, where Israel eliminated a member of the Palestinian movement Islamic Jihad the day before, triggering warnings of revenge attacks.
Earlier, the Israeli army had foreshadowed retaliations to the mortar bomb attack, which it described as "barbaric", saying it would punish those responsible.
It was the first time that mortar bombs fired by Palestinians had injured Israeli civilians.
"The period of restraint is over. War will be met with war," said Telecommunications Minister Reuven Rivlin said earlier.
But in the streets of Gaza City after the raids Tuesday night, angry Palestinians youths improvised a demonstration, chanting: "We will sacrifice ourselves for you, Palestine".
Before the strikes Tuesday night, the Arab League warned of a "regional explosion" if the escalation of violence following last week's Arab summit continued.
Some 18 people have been killed in clashes in the Palestinian territories since Arab leaders met in Amman, in what was one of the bloodiest weeks in the six-month-old Intifada, which has claimed a total of 467 lives, mostly Palestinian.
In the West Bank meanwhile, Israeli tanks attacked Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Force 17 squad positions at Beitunia southwest of Ramallah and El-Bireh to the west.
Shells fired from tanks also fell on Salfit southwest of Nablus, witnesses said, while Israeli army positions fired from machine-guns on Nablus and Tulkarem in the West Bank after being fired on by Palestinian gunmen.
Before Tuesday's violence, there was already little hope that the lull in the deadly spiral of violence between Israel and the Palestinians would last, with each side rejecting the blame for the violence on the other.
However, late Tuesday night, Israeli public radio announced that the Palestinian and Israeli security chiefs would soon take part in a security meeting in the presence of a Central Intelligence Agency observer.
Israeli Radio said the meeting was an initiative by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, but could not say when or where it was due to be held.
On the diplomatic front, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Bush vowed at their meeting Monday to cooperate on forging Middle East peace, while Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres traveled from Sweden to Paris where he held talks with French President Jacques Chirac, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine.
"Europe must mobilize to produce something in the future," Palestinian minister for international cooperation Nabil Shaath said earlier, urging the European Union to reactivate its role in the Middle East.
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