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Israeli
Air Raids on Tulkarem, Palestinians Call For ‘International Intervention’
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| Israel uses
US-made F16 fighter jets to attack Palestinian civilians |
RAMALLAH,
West Bank, Jan. 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – The Palestinian
Authority called Friday for "urgent international intervention" to
stop an Israeli plan to destroy it, as a Palestinian security man was killed and
some 40 other palestinians were wounded earlier in two Israeli air raids on
Tulkaram, news agencies reported Friday, January 18, 2002.
"The
Palestinian Authority is asking for urgent international intervention to end
(hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon's military plans to destroy the
authority and the peace process with it," Palestinian negotiator Saeb
Erakat told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Friday.
He
was speaking after Israel sent warplanes to bomb Palestinian targets in the West
Bank town of Tulkarem, killing one person and wounding some 40 more, and
tightened its ring of tanks around Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's offices
in Ramallah.
Early
Friday, Israeli F16 jet fighters attacked Tulkaram in two waves, flattening the
governor's building which is used as headquarters for the security services,
reported AFP.
The
Palestinian security man martyred Friday was Jamal Al Aswad, 24. His death
brings to 1,146 the number of people killed since the start of the Palestinian
Intifada against the Israeli occupation on September 28, 2000, triggered by
Sharon’s provocative visit to Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Since
then, 876 Palestinians (majority of whom are children and women) were killed by
the Israeli occupation army mighty firepower, as well as 248 Israelis killed in
resistance retaliatory operations.
At
the same time, more than 20 Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers entered
Palestinian-controlled land in Ramallah and moved close to Arafat's offices in
the West Bank town, Palestinian security officials told AFP.
An
Israeli military source confirmed the troop movements aimed at tightening the
stranglehold on Arafat, whom the Israelis have not allowed to leave Ramallah
since early December.
An
Israeli occupation army spokesman said the raids were in retaliation for the
attack, late Thursday in the northern city of Hadera, in which a Palestinian
“resistance activist” burst into a banqueting hall and sprayed bullets
around the room with an assault rifle, BBC’s online news service reported
Friday.
The
Palestinian Authority condemned the attack immediately and declared it will
arrest and punish those behind it.
However,
Israel blamed the Palestinian Authority for the attack in which a Palestinian
man killed six Israelis before being gunned down himself.
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| Body of
Karmi, Tulkaram leader of Al-Aqsa Brigades, assassinated by Israel |
Al
Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, an offshoot of Arafat's Fatah movement on Friday claimed
responsibility for the shooting in Hadera in Northern Israel.
The
group said in a telephone call to AFP that one of their members, 24-year-old
Abdelsalam Hasunah, from Beit Imrin to the north of Nablus, had carried out the
attack late Thursday.
"We
are from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and we claim responsibility for the
operation in Hadera which was revenge for our Tulkarem leader Raed al-Karmi,"
the caller said.
Karmi,
30, was assassinated on Monday, January 14, 2002, in an explosion prepared and
carried out by Israeli occupation forces, which have assassinated dozens of
suspected Palestinian resistance activists.
The United States was quick in condemning Thursday's attack by a Palestinian
gunman in northern Israel, calling it a "horrific act of terrorism"
and called on Yasser Arafat to take immediate action against those responsible.
However,
the U.S. stopped short of condemning the Israeli aggressions, and dangerous
escalation of an already boiling situation.
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