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Some 40 Wounded In Shooting, Three Palestinian Activists Killed By Hazel Ward
JERUSALEM, March 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Some 40 people were wounded when three Palestinian activists opened fire Saturday near a hotel in the coastal town of Netanya, north of Tel Aviv. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Group declared responsibility for the operation, news agencies reported.
The Palestinian activists took up positions in two different places along the same pedestrian walkway during the attack on the Jewish Sabbath, then opened fire with automatic weapons and threw grenades, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The head of Operations for the Magen David Adom rescue services, Doron Kotler, told AFP 40 people were wounded in the attack, many of them seriously. A local hospital official said a baby was among the wounded.
A day after the bloodiest 24 hours in the 17-month Israeli-Palestinian conflict, another four people died in different incidents, including two Palestinian teenagers.
Rana Hamad, 18, from the village of Qur to the east of Qalqilya, died of complications following a miscarriage after being held up for two hours at Israeli army checkpoints, Palestinian hospital sources said.
She had earlier given birth to a stillborn baby, but her condition deteriorated and her husband and a nurse tried to take her to the hospital in Qalqilya for treatment, the sources said.
A 14-year-old girl died of her wounds earlier Saturday after being hit by Israeli troops firing towards Al-Aza refugee camp in Bethlehem, other Palestinian hospital sources said.
A Palestinian activist also died of wounds sustained the day before in clashes during the army's sweep for suspected resistance activists into the West Bank.
An Israeli settler, meanwhile, died at the Kissufim junction near the Gaza Strip's eastern border, after Israeli soldiers, accidentally, ran him over during a Palestinian shooting attack.
On the political front, a senior U.S. official said Washington had no plans to join the European Union in a Dutch-proposed protest of Israel's military action against the Palestinians.
"We've been coordinating closely with the Europeans and Secretary [of State Colin] Powell has spoken with a number of his European colleagues in past day or so because we want to make sure all of our efforts with the Israelis and Palestinians are in parallel," the official said.
"But there is no formal joint demarche being planned," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "Maybe the Europeans are looking at something like this themselves, but we, frankly, are not aware of it."
The Netherlands announced Saturday it had launched a mission to get Washington and the European Union to jointly ask Israel to end military action against the Palestinians.
"The Netherlands proposed a joint EU-U.S. statement to the Israeli government calling for an immediate end to the military repression, which is leading nowhere," foreign ministry spokesman Hans Janssen said.
The moves follow Israeli Prime hawkish Minister Ariel Sharon's decision to drop his long-standing demand for seven days of absolute calm in the Palestinian territories for a halt to the military campaign, which has evoked images of a full-scale war.
Sharon said he was ready to start discussions on the Tenet understanding. Named after U.S. CIA director George Tenet, it sets out a mechanism for implementing a ceasefire.
After that, the Mitchell plan -- a blueprint for getting the peace process back on track -- could be put into effect, he said.
The United States has announced, amid the surging violence, it will send peace envoy Anthony Zinni back to the region, while U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney will also start a tour next week.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who remains cooped up by Israel in the West Bank town of Ramallah, also said the Palestinians are "not asking for the moon" in the Middle East.
"We are not asking for the moon, we are demanding what has already been agreed," the Palestinan leader told a Greek daily Saturday, referring to a series of UN resolutions on Palestinian rights.
"We demand the safeguard of all holy places, Christian and Muslim, in Jerusalem, in Bethlehem and anywhere else. When Israelis accept this there will be peace in the region," he said.
Elsewhere on the ground on Saturday, an Israeli F-16 fired a missile on a local residence used by Arafat in the West Bank town of Nablus and, according to local hospital sources, wounded 10 people.
Israeli helicopter gunships also fired several rockets at Palestinian targets in Gaza City. Several buildings, including one housing Arafat's Force 17 guard and another controlling the administration of presidential transport, were hit, a Palestinian security source said.
At least 12 explosions rocked the town, an AFP correspondent said, adding that Israeli helicopter gunships earlier fired rockets on Palestinian targets in central Gaza City.
Two women, including a member of the police forces, were wounded when rockets hit a police station in the city center, security sources said.
Several buildings near the police station were damaged, witnesses said.
The raids also targeted buildings sheltering security forces as well as the Palestinian prison administration, the security sources said.
The army said it raided a position in Khan Yunis earlier Saturday, which it said was used by Palestinians to fire on soldiers and settlers.
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