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Israeli Forces Blast Gaza Strip
JERUSALEM,
Nov. 4 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli helicopters attacked the Gaza Strip at dawn with heavy rocket attacks, news agencies reported Sunday.
The Israeli blasts targeted three metal works in the northern Gaza Strip town of Jabalia, which Israeli army radio alleged were arms factories.
Witnesses said the Israeli bombardment lasted for about 40 minutes. They added that Israeli helicopters launched more than 10 rockets, causing severe damage to the three metal workshops.
Palestinian Authority (PA) security officials said the factories, workshops and an aluminum production plant were hit by five missiles from attack helicopters and at least eight ground-to-ground missiles, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Hours before the new attacks, hardline Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon cancelled a planned meeting with President George Bush in the United States next week, the BBC's online news service reported.
An announcement from Sharon's office said the trip - which was also to include talks in the U. K.- had been postponed indefinitely because of what it described as the "security situation" in Israel.
This might be an attempt by Sharon to avoid being pressured to withdraw Israeli troops from Palestinian areas recently reoccupied by Israeli forces, the BBC reported.
"I have decided to continue with the redeployment of our forces," Sharon told Newsweek magazine in an interview for Monday's edition. "What might result is a situation in which terror bursts out. I want to be here to see how it develops."
When asked if an Israeli pullout from Palestinian-ruled areas was a result of U. S. pressure, Sharon responded: "I think the administration's wish is that we move out - but we wanted to move out. We are in a war here, a special kind of war."
On Saturday, a Palestinian official said PA President Yasser Arafat would travel to the U. N. General Assembly debate, to be held from Nov. 10-12. U. S. President George W. Bush, whom Arafat has yet to meet, is also expected to attend.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv to commemorate former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was killed by an Israeli extremist six years ago, the BBC reported.
The demonstrators called for renewed peace talks with the Palestinians and an end to the occupation of West Bank territory.
In another development, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Arafat have met for the first time in more than a month.
The two men held talks on the sidelines of an annual Mediterranean forum held on the Spanish island of Mallorca.
Arafat urged Israel to "withdraw its troops from areas under Palestinian sovereignty, raise the blockade imposed for the last 14 months and suspend its policy of murdering Palestinian activists," AFP reported.
"You must understand there are limits to what we can do," replied Peres.
Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Sunday the Israeli army will withdraw from one of the remaining five Palestinian towns it is still occupying, a few hours after Israeli missiles blasted metal works in the Gaza Strip.
Ben-Eliezer said his forces will quit the northern West Bank town of Qalqilya on Sunday evening, AFP reported.
The Israeli defense minister was quoted by army radio as telling a weekly cabinet meeting that he was also in favor of withdrawing from four other towns still besieged or occupied by Israel - Nablus, Ramallah, Tulkarem and Jenin, but did not fix a date.
"We are ready for a town-by-town withdrawal within a week if the Palestinian Authority arrests the provocateurs...and takes on responsibility for maintaining the peace," Ben-Eliezer told Israeli public radio.
However, Israeli troops on Saturday sealed off roads in the West Bank after a young soldier was shot dead a day earlier.
The U. S., the European Union and the U. N. have called on Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory it has seized.
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