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Israel Kills Five Palestinian Policemen
GAZA CITY, May 14 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israel on Monday launched its most extensive attack against Palestinian officials and in the territories since the seven month Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, against Israeli occupation began, bombarding the Gaza Strip and killing five policemen on the eve of al-Nakba, what the Palestinians term the "catastrophe" of Israel's creation 53 years ago.
Overnight, Israeli helicopters, warships and tanks hammered Palestinian targets across Gaza, including Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's offices and security force positions.
And hours before, Israel once again moved its army into an area under full Palestinian control - the sixth incursion into the Gaza Strip since Thursday, according to the Palestinians - a contravention of the autonomy accords.
Palestinian officials also said five policemen were killed at an Israeli army roadblock near the West Bank town of Ramallah, when Israeli soldiers opened fire on them for no apparent reason.
"It's not a killing, it's an assassination and this is a dirty operation by Israel," Arafat told reporters after meeting with the European Union's Middle East envoy Miguel Angel Moratinos.
"Israel did the same thing yesterday when it bombarded all of the Gaza Strip from the ground, sea and air, but they will not push us or threaten us. We are not scared and Israel should know it will pay for this crime," he added.
Israel said the latest attacks were aimed at preventing "terror activities" by various groups, including those linked with Arafat.
"We will not wait for terror to hit us. The Palestinian Authority has to clearly put an end to this activity, to clearly call upon all its activists to cease terror," said Avi Pazner, a senior advisor to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Monday.
"It was a cowardly and horrible crime by people claiming to be in authority," Palestinian parliamentary affairs minister Nabil Amr said on Voice of Palestine radio.
He also slammed the United States for blocking the dispatch of an international force to protect the Palestinians," whom he said "will not surrender and will never hoist the white flag."
The latest deaths take the overall toll to 529 since the uprising began, affecting both Israel and the Palestinian territories in what Pope John Paul II condemned Sunday as an "immoral chain of provocations and reprisals".
After the overnight attacks, which they warned could drag the region into further bloodshed and destroy hopes for a revival of peace talks, the Palestinians demanded an urgent meeting of the U.N. Security Council.
A top Arafat aide, Ahmed Abdel Rahman, said the Palestinians have asked world powers, including Washington and Moscow, for an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting to stop Israeli attacks and provide international protection.
He charged that the aim of the strikes was to hit the Palestinian Authority and destroy the Palestinian infrastructure.
The Arab League is to meet Monday at the request of the Palestinians to consider a new diplomatic push to obtain international protection for the Palestinians following the latest Israeli strikes, an official said.
"We are going to inform the Arab countries of the situation on the ground and ask the secretary general of the League to transmit a request for international protection to the secretary general of the United Nations and the five permanent members of the Security Council," Palestinian ambassador to the Arab League Mohamed Sobeih said.
Violence also flared on the volatile border region with Lebanon, when Hezbollah fired anti-tank rockets against an Israeli army post in a disputed region, but there were no casualties.
Meanwhile, Israel announced its response to the initial report of the Mitchell commission, set up at the last abortive Israeli-Palestinian summit soon after the violence began.
"We approve the Mitchell report in principle, with two reservations on the call for a freeze on settlements and criticism of the Israeli army," said Sharon's spokesman Raanan Gissin.
Israel said it rejected criticisms voiced by a U.S.-led panel investigating the causes of the seven-month spiral of deadly Israeli-Palestinian violence, which called for a halt to all Jewish settlement activity and said the army was too harsh against unarmed Palestinian demonstrators.
The report, which also highlighted the Palestinian Authority's failure to exercise proper control over its security forces, has been accepted by the Palestinians in full on all its political, security and economic elements, according to international cooperation minister Nabil Shaath.
Sharon is to visit Europe early next month to explain his position in the conflict, following on the heels of a similar trip planned by Arafat to France on May 23rd.
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