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Mideast Death Toll Mounts As Israel Demolishes More Houses
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, July 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - An Israeli army officer was killed and a Hamas bomber blew himself up as fresh violence ripped through the Palestinian territories Monday, further rattling a truce that has so far failed to halt the bloodshed.
Tensions were heightened as clashes erupted over Israel's demolition of more than a dozen homes in a Palestinian refugee camp in occupied east Jerusalem, an action the Palestinians branded a "provocation."
Jewish settlers also barged into a Palestinian wedding party in the West Bank town of Hebron on Monday, beating up guests and damaging cars and houses, Palestinian witnesses told news agencies.
The scrap triggered a round of stone throwing between Palestinian residents and the settlers from Kiryat Arba, but no one was seriously injured, they said.
Hebron, of which 20 percent remains under Israeli control, is a hotbed of violence between the Israeli settlers who live in the city and the Palestinian population.
Divisions also emerged in the Israeli government over whether Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was doing enough to halt the violence and allow the start of a "cooling off" period called for under the four-week-old US-brokered ceasefire.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Arafat had pledged to Israel and the United States that the Palestinians would start taking action to restore calm and prevent attacks against Israel.
But, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer, on a visit to Turkey, told reporters that Israel was still waiting for Arafat to stop the violence.
"We have no intention whatsoever to get back to the table as long as the terror struggle continues. No!" he said at a press conference.
The Haaretz newspaper said left-wing Peres and hawkish Prime Minister Ariel Sharon were at loggerheads over when Israel should begin implementing measures under an internationally-backed peace plan which calls for a halt to the building of Jewish settlements on occupied land and a lifting of the choking blockade on the Palestinians.
The death toll mounted with the slaying of Captain Shalom Cohen, 22, a member of an elite Israeli undercover army unit, in an overnight bombing near the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron.
In the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian activist was killed when he set off a booby-trapped car near the Gush Katif Jewish settlement bloc in an attack claimed by the armed wing of the Islamic movement Hamas.
Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement that the bombing by Nafez Ayesh al-Nadher, 26, was "a message to the Zionist terrorists who kill our children and kidnap and liquidate our activists" and warned that suicide attacks would continue.
Monday's deaths brought the number of lives lost since Israel opted for a violent military response to Palestinian protests against the Israeli occupation to 641 since late September. Almost 30 people, mostly Palestinians, were killed since the truce mediated by CIA chief George Tenet came into effect on June 13.
In a rare move, the Palestinians said they had arrested an accomplice of the bomber, as an Israeli official complained that Israel had warned them an attack was imminent and they had done nothing to stop it.
Hamas activists had pledged Sunday, during the funeral of an 11-year-old Palestinian boy shot dead by Israeli troops, to launch attacks to "avenge the blood of the martyrs."
Israel's police went on top alert for possible attacks at the Israeli airport near Tel Aviv, causing massive traffic jams.
In occupied Jerusalem, Israeli bulldozers tore down 14 homes in the Palestinian refugee camp of Shufat, in one of the largest demolition operations in years. Israeli border guards used sticks and rifle butts against protestors, including women.
The Jerusalem municipality, run by militant mayor Ehud Olmert of Sharon's Likud party, had on Sunday issued destruction orders for 25 homes in the camp that it said were built without permits.
Orient House, the unofficial Palestinian headquarters in east Jerusalem, condemned the demolitions.
The stalemate in the peace process has sparked fears of a regional war and tensions have been re-ignited on the Lebanon-Israel border, following the disclosure by the United Nations that it has a videotape filmed the day after three Israeli soldiers were abducted by Hezbollah members nine months ago.
The United Nations says it will allow Israel to view the tape, but obscure the faces of presumed Hezbollah operatives, while Israel has demanded to see the untouched original and is calling for an inquiry into the U.N.'s knowledge of the case.
Hezbollah chief, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, warned that the United Nations would be deemed to be "spying for the enemy" if it handed over the tape.
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