|
Surge In Israeli Violence Leaves Two Dead
GAZA CITY, May 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli helicopter strike in the West Bank on Saturday while a young boy was buried here as Israeli-Palestinian gunbattles raged in the Gaza Strip.
The violence, which left three more Palestinian teenagers wounded in Gaza City, occurred after the Palestinian leadership labeled the mounting Israeli offensive as a "clear call" for a wider regional conflict.
An official of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction and a policeman were killed during an attack by Israeli helicopter gunships in the northern West Bank town of Jenin, Palestinian medical sources said.
Motassem al-Sabagh, 25, was in a car parked close to the offices of the Palestinian governor of the autonomous Palestinian town of Jenin when it was hit by three rockets in an attack by four Israeli helicopters, witnesses said.
Sabagh, a member of Fatah's armed group Tanzim and apparently wanted by Israel, and was said to have tried in vain to get out of the car before it was hit.
He died of his wounds en route to a Nablus hospital, medical sources said.
He was the Jenin-region head of the Al-Aqsa brigade, which has claimed a series of retaliatory Palestinian attacks against Israel, Palestinian sources said.
Two passengers in the Fiat Uno car with Sabagh were members of the Palestinian security forces and were injured in the attack, they said.
Palestinian policeman Allam Jaludi, 21, was standing close to the car when it was hit and was fatally wounded, they said. Another 11 Palestinians in the vicinity were also injured.
An Israeli army spokesman refused to comment on the attack.
Thousands of supporters of the Islamic Palestinian resistance movement Hamas demonstrated in the West Bank town of Ramallah, promising to intensify their jihad, or holy struggle, against Israel.
In the first demonstration to mark what Palestinians call the Nakba, or the "catastrophe" of the creation of Israel 53 years ago, around 1,500 Hamas supporters chanted "Jews, the armies of Mohammad are coming!"
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops fired tank shells and automatic weapons at Palestinian gunmen holed up in a cemetery opposite the Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim, Palestinian security forces said.
Israeli tanks fired at least three shells, while troops guarding the settlement traded gunfire with the Palestinians holed up in the cemetery bordering the Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, they added.
Three Palestinian teenagers were wounded, one of them seriously, after they were hit by Israeli bullets at the Karni crossing with Gaza City, where they had been throwing stones, medical sources said.
Hussan Tahfish, 16, who was killed in clashes at Karni on Friday, was buried in Gaza's "Martyrs Cemetery" on Saturday following an angry funeral procession by Fatah members.
Tahfish's flag-draped body, who, doctors say, was shot through the heart by a live round from an Israeli occupation soldier Friday, was carried aloft on a stretcher by members of Arafat's Fatah movement.
Fatah had called for a strong turnout at the funeral of the boy whom they said was one of their members. Some 2,500 people took part in the procession.
"We cannot see peace on the ground," Fatah member Abed Mohammad al-Banna said after kissing his friend farewell in the morgue.
Asked if he were afraid of the military might of Israel, he replied: "We are sons of Fatah. We will all do our best to face Israel."
"With blood and our soul, we will sacrifice for you, oh martyr," members of the procession shouted in unison as women watched from the balconies of homes lining the main street in Gaza City.
The procession began at the morgue of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, then moved to the streets, heading for the family home before reaching the mosque and then cemetery.
In addition, two more Palestinians were wounded late Friday when the Israeli army fired missiles at Palestinian security force offices in the northern Gaza Strip in what it said was in retaliation for a Palestinian mortar attack.
Though Tahfish was killed while throwing stones, the seven-month-old Palestinian uprising is increasingly turning to armed attacks against Israelis.
That has prompted Israeli retaliation with tanks, helicopters and gunships on the isolated 40-kilometer Gaza Strip as well as the West Bank.
A meeting of the Palestinian leadership late Friday labeled Israel's escalation of attacks on the Gaza Strip a "clear call" for a wider regional conflict in the Middle East.
"The leadership considers the military escalation, which has no justification, to be a clear call for a generalized conflict in the region," a statement said.
The Palestinian authority also called on the international community to "put an end to Israeli aggression against Palestinians in the autonomous territories."
In the space of 24 hours, the Israeli army has made five incursions into the Gaza Strip to hit at Palestinian police posts they say are being used for attacks on Israeli targets, including one on Friday in which Israeli occupation troops penetrated 700 meters into a Palestinian-controlled area at Deir el-Balah in the southern Gaza Strip, destroying a Palestinian police position and several houses.
The escalating violence prompted U.S. President George W. Bush to describe the situation as "abhorrent" and vow to sustain efforts to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has urged Bush to help rescue the Mideast peace process, the official Egyptian press reported Saturday.
Al-Ahram daily said Mubarak wrote to Bush stressing the importance of putting an end to the Middle East's deteriorating situation and mobilizing to reach peace. However, the newspaper did not quote the letter's contents or reveal the date it was sent.
The Bush administration has fallen under criticism in Egypt's press for taking a hands-off approach to the Mideast peace process as Israel launched a new offensive strategy Friday, saying its army would respond "systematically" after each Palestinian attack.
"There is now a new tactic, which means reacting systematically and punctually to every terrorist attack, including those from the Palestinian autonomous zones if need be," Israeli army spokesman General Ron Kitrey said.
More than 520 people have died in the seven-and-a-half month Palestinian uprising, or Intifada, the vast majority of them Palestinians.
|
