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Israeli Occupation Forces Continue Vandalizing Palestinian Houses
HEBRON, West Bank, July 14 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli occupation troops and settlers vandalized Palestinian houses and cars in Hebron overnight Friday following one of the worst days of violence since a would-be ceasefire was declared one month ago.
Israeli occupation army bulldozers demolished three dozen homes and shops in a Palestinian refugee camp early Friday, triggering confrontations with Palestinians and sending civilians running for cover, some still in their pyjamas, news agencies reported.
The British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, denounced the demolitions, calling them provocative.
"They raise the temperature on the ground and undermine the efforts of those who are working to rebuilding the basis for (so-called) peace," he said.
Five Palestinians and three Israeli occupation soldiers were wounded as the bulldozers went to work amid gunfire and bursting hand grenades.
Palestinians said it was the first major incursion into Palestinian territory since a U.S.-brokered truce began last month. Israel falsely countered that it has security control over the Rafah camp.
The demolished homes covered an area several hundred yards square, and daybreak saw dozens of residents scouring the wreckage.
Moreover, witnesses said Israeli occupants from the Kiryat Arba settlement pelted neighboring Palestinian houses with stones after around 2,000 Palestinians staged a late night rally in the divided city to protest against the Jewish brutal occupation.
Israeli occupation troops also slashed the tires of Palestinian taxis, they said.
The Israeli occupation army poured tanks and troops into Palestinian areas of the city in a pre-dawn raid early Friday following gun attacks Thursday that left two Jewish settlers dead and wounded several others.
At least 17 Palestinians were wounded, including three members of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's elite Force 17 guard, in the Israeli attack.
About 400 extremist settlers live under heavy Israeli occupation army protection in an enclave of this city, which is sacred to Muslims and is home to 120,000 Palestinians.
The city has been the site of some of the worst violence since the Palestinian uprising or Intifada against Israeli occupation began late September following a provocative encroachment by the ultra-rightist Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's on the Al Aqsa mosque compound.
Meanwhile, the international community stepped up its calls for restraint and a return to calm Saturday, following the worst day of Israeli escalation in a month, one day before a visit to Egypt by Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
Thirty-five people have been killed since the would-be ceasefire was announced on June 13, the vast majority Palestinian.
In Gaza City, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's top aide, Nabil Abu Rudeina, accused the U.S. administration of encouraging Israel to "continue its aggressions upon the Palestinians", through its silence and "by giving up their role as a serious sponsor of the (so-called) peace process".
But Washington denied ever giving the green light to Israeli military action against the Palestinians, and said it was still pushing for the recommendations of the international commission - known as the Mitchell plan - on ending the violence to be implemented.
"We can do what we are doing, and that's working in the region, on the ground, with the people involved to try to help them take the steps necessary to stop the violence," U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
A day before Peres' visit to Cairo aimed at saving the moribund ceasefire, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher accused Israel of leading the Middle East into a "vicious circle" of violence.
Amid international concern that the fresh round of clashes might lead to a regional escalation, Maher later had a phone conversation with his German counterpart Joshka Fischer and European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Javier Solana, to discuss the situation, an Egyptian source said.
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