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Israeli
Forces Storm Al-Aqsa Mosque, Wound 5, Shoot Cameraman
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Palestinian shot dead by Israeli forces on their way to
Araft’s presidential compund headquarters in Ramallah |
OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, March 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies)- Israeli
occupation forces stormed Al-Aqsa mosque following Friday noon
prayers, after clashes between Palestinian youths and Israelis
standing by the mosque wall which they term the “Wailing Wall”.
Israeli
forces scuffled with Palestinian worshippers and abducted a number
of Palestinian youths who had started hurling stones and chanting
slogans against Israeli occupation. Five Palestinians were wounded
and one Israeli policeman slightly injured in the clashes.
In
retaliation for Israel’s storming of Al-Aqsa mosque – Islam’s
third holiest site – a Palestinian woman blew herself up in a
Jerusalem supermarket in the West Jerusalem district of Kiryat Yovel,
killing two and wounding sixteen.
Al-Aqsa
martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the bombing according to
the Lebanese resistance movement Hizbullah.
Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat’s office in Ramallah has been targeted in
Israeli attempts to “isolate” him in his headquarters.
Arafat
has called upon Arab leaders to halt Israel’s “madness” and
“to mobilize at the international level, jointly with world
leaders, to put an end to the international terrorism of Sharon”,
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
He
said this is Israel’s response to the Arab summit’s peace
proposal for normalization of ties with Israel in return for its
withdrawal from Arab lands it occupied in 1967.
Israeli
occupation forces attacked houses in Ramallah, especially high
buildings, cut electricity, detained hundreds of Palestinian youths,
and locked families in one room, taking over the rest of the house,
Palestinian sources told IslamOnline in a phone interview.
Israeli
forces also occupied the Anglican school, and imposed a strict
curfew on Palestinian civilians.
Meanwhile,
Mostafa Hay, a Palestinian cameraman working with Egypt’s Nile-TV
network was shot with an Israeli sniper bullet while on his way to
Arafat’s compound. He was badly wounded in the neck and was taken
to hospital in a serious condition, the sources said.
Foreign
reporters were also detained in Ramallah in one building and banned
from leaving the premises.
According
to AFP, Israeli tanks, troops and helicopters are reportedly in
control of Ramallah. Israeli forces killed six Palestinians Friday
and wounded at least 24.
In
a statement issued by Arafat, the Palestinian President called upon
Arab leaders and their people to “intervene immediately and to do,
according to their national duty, what it takes to protect the
Palestinian struggle."
Palestinian
Foreign Minister Faruq Qaddumi called upon Saudi Crown Prince
Abullah bin Abd El-Aziz to call on international leaders to stop
both the attacks on Arafat’s headquarters and the bloodbath in
Ramallah.
Nabil
Shaath, the Palestinian Planning Minister, told reporters he had
asked Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri to contact French
President Jacques Chirac, who accordingly promised Shaath to get in
touch with American, Russian and European leaders.
The
Lebanese Foreign Minister condemned Israel’s “barbarous war and
an arrogant savage aggression” only hours after the Arab peace
initiative was adopted at the Beirut summit, AFP reported.
"What
Israel is doing confirms again that it is a terrorist state which
rejects peace,” he said.
Meanwhile,
different Islamic and nationalist Palestinian groups have decided to
"unite to defend the Palestinian people in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip," an official from the resistance group Hamas said.
This
will mean the unification of 13 Palestinian factions including the
Islamic resistance groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
According
to AFP, it will also include the three main political sections of
the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). They are Fatah, the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).
Abdelaziz
al-Rantissi of Hamas promised Israel would pay a high price for its
aggression in Ramallah.
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