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Israel On High Alert After Retaliatory Killings
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| Palestinians
carry the body of Fatah leader Raed Karmi during his funeral in the West
Bank town of Tulkarm |
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, Jan. 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israelis were on high alert Wednesday, a day after two occupation soldiers were killed by a Palestinian resistance movement in retaliation for the slaying of one of its leaders.
The two Israelis, one of them an 72-year-old man with dual U.S. citizenship, were killed in West Bank attacks Tuesday, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Avi Boaz, 72, a resident of the Maale Adumim Jewish settlement near Jerusalem, was found with a bullet wound to the head in Beit Sahur, a Palestinian town near Bethlehem to the south of Jerusalem.
His U.S. passport was found inside his bullet-ridden car, an Israeli police spokesman said.
Hours later, an Israeli woman was killed and another injured in a drive-by shooting at the gates of the Jewish settlement of Givat Zeev, Israeli television said.
Israeli government spokesman Avi Pazner accused the Palestinian naval police of complicity in Boaz's abduction and killing at a police checkpoint, saying they had either turned a blind eye, or possibly even helped.
Boaz’s killing was claimed by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a splinter group of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, which also killed an Israeli soldier late Monday in retaliation for the killing of Raed al-Karmi, a leader of the group in the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem.
Al-Aqsa said the settler was "an officer of the Zionist intelligence services" and that his killing was "a lesson ... for those with the blood of our people on their hands".
Earlier Tuesday around 10,000 mourners, dozens of them armed and firing in the air, gathered to bury Karmi in Tulkarem. As his body wrapped in a Palestinian flag was carried through the town, the crowd bayed for revenge.
Despite the flare-up in violence, Fatah leaders insisted a frayed ceasefire declared by Arafat a month ago was still in force.
Fatah's West Bank chief, Hussein al-Sheikh, insisted on Israeli public radio that Arafat's ceasefire was "still in force.
"I spoke Monday evening with President Arafat, who confirmed to me the continuation of the ceasefire," he said.
But he warned of "very strong pressure from the grass-roots," saying, "we are at the end of our patience with regard to this war being waged by Ariel Sharon's government against the Palestinian people."
Arafat called for a ceasefire in a public address on December 16.
The Palestinian resistance group Hamas threatened to follow Al-Aqsa's lead and drop its avowed suspension of retaliatory attacks in Israeli cities if Arafat is not allowed to leave the West Bank town of Ramallah, where Israel has blockaded him for the past six weeks.
"If the Zionist enemy does not publicly and clearly announce the lifting of restrictions imposed on President Yasser Arafat, our brigades will react by launching several operations deep inside Zionist territory," said the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas armed wing, in a statement, AFP reported.
"Our brigades will turn life (for Israelis) into unbearable hell," it warned.
The call for Arafat's freedom of movement was echoed by Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique, who has marked the start of Madrid's six months as the acting president of the European Union with a Middle East tour, starting in Jordan.
"Mr. Arafat must get back his freedom of movement as soon as possible. It is necessary for the peace process," said Pique, who is due in Israel on Wednesday.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres denied Palestinian charges that Israel was seeking an escalation of violence, while Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer said Karmi had been killed by a bomb he was carrying, and had been planning more attacks on Israel.
Israel accused him of being behind the killings of nine Israelis.
Marwan Barghuti, Fatah's West Bank leader, charged Karmi's killing was part of a political plan being carried out by the Israeli army aimed at destroying Arafat's Palestinian Authority.
"We are at the start of a dangerous escalation and a new cycle of confrontation. Reaching a solution with (Israeli prime minister Ariel) Sharon is only an illusion," he said.
The sudden outbursts of violence, which Palestinian officials said marked Israel's return to a policy of targeted assassinations, came as Washington expressed increasing frustration with both the Palestinians and Israelis.
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