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Israel Demolishes Five Palestinian Houses In East Jerusalem
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| Israeli forces detain Palestinians in Jenin and demolish five homes in Gaza |
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, Feb. 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Jerusalem city council demolished five Palestinian houses in Israeli-occupied and annexed east Jerusalem Wednesday, in the second such operation this week in the city, news agencies reported.
The council claimed the houses were built without permission in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina. Israeli police guarded the bulldozers as they destroyed the buildings and kept journalists at a distance, reported AFP.
The demolitions came as right-wing Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert said the house razing would take place "every week" calling the homes "illegal construction" and adding that they will do everything necessary to bring it to an end.
The city council said three houses were destroyed, but Palestinian witnesses and an AFP photographer at the scene counted five buildings being bulldozed. Local residents said one of the buildings also housed a nursery school.
On Monday, the city council destroyed two houses in Al-Issawiya in east Jerusalem, which Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war declaring Jerusalem its capital.
In another development, a Palestinian woman had to give birth at an Israeli army barrage in the Gaza Strip and named her baby Hajez, the Arabic word for checkpoint, Palestinian security officials said Wednesday.
They said the woman was forced to give birth on the spot Tuesday because soldiers refused to allow her to cross and reach the nearby Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis.
She chose the name to express her "anger and to symbolize the pain and suffering that Palestinian mothers have to undergo each day at Israeli checkpoints," one official told AFP.
Palestinian sources said it was not the first time that a pregnant woman has been forced to deliver at an Israeli checkpoint in the Palestinian territories since the uprising against Israeli occupation broke out in September 2000.
In Jenin, the Israeli occupation army detained tens of Palestinians near a military blockage in the northern part of the city, reported Palestinian News Agency (WAFA). Palestinian witnesses said the Israeli forces set up the blockade between the villages of Erana and the Kharooba district north of Jenin.
Israeli soldiers detained Palestinians who tried to cross the blockage by walking through it, said WAFA, adding that they closely inspected their identification cards. Most of them were students and teachers.
It is worth noting that this road is the only road that ties the villages of East Jenin to the North after occupation forces closed down all other roads in the area and declared it a closed military area.
Meanwhile, on the diplomatic front, the United States will continue to work with the Palestinian Authority and its elected president, Yasser Arafat, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East William Burns told reporters in Cairo after a meeting with the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Wednesday.
"Our position is very clear, and that is that President Arafat is the elected leader of the Palestinian people, that we continue to work with the Palestinian Authority," Burns said.
Last month, U.S. President George W. Bush accused Arafat of "enhancing terror" and has threatened to sever all links with the Palestinian Authority if he fails to crack down on what he called "terrorism."
Burns said he discussed with Mubarak "how we can work together to take advantage of what may be a renewed opportunity to move ahead," citing "many ideas that are out there contained in the Mitchell report, in the Tenet security work plan."
The Tenet understanding named after CIA director George Tenet, set out a mechanism for implementing a ceasefire, after which the Mitchell plan, a blueprint for moving the peace process back on track, can be put into effect.
"We also recognize there are obligations that the Israeli government has as well," said the U.S. official, who is also scheduled to meet Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher during his Cairo visit.
Hard-line Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was to jet off to Washington late Wednesday where he has found increasing support for his tough line on Arafat, while the Palestinian president says he is ready to end the 16-month conflict. As well as trying to convince U.S. President George W. Bush to boycott Arafat, Sharon will discuss growing tension with Iran, which Israel accuses of supplying the Hezbollah Shiite Muslim militia in Lebanon with 8,000 long-range missiles capable of hitting Israeli cities.
However, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on Wednesday voiced doubts that Israel could find any alternative to Yasser Arafat to do business with the Palestinians, in implicit criticism of Sharon, reported AFP.
"When Sharon meets Palestinian officials, he is meeting in effect with representatives of Arafat," Peres said on Israeli public radio on his return from a visit to the United States. The Labour leader in the coalition government was referring to a January 30 encounter between hardliner Sharon and Palestinian parliament speaker Ahmed Qorei and two other leading Palestinian figures.
"Sharon was not born yesterday, he knows perfectly well that these officials are linked to Arafat," said Peres. "And these officials are not trying to replace Arafat, but to change his strategy."
Sharon, who is to meet Bush on Thursday in Washington, has dubbed Arafat "irrelevant" for not cracking down hard enough on militants and wants to find a replacement for the Palestinian president.
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