 |
|
Sharon
has gone “crazy” : Erakat
|
GAZA
CITY, April 11 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Chief Palestinian
negotiator Saeb Erakat accused Israel of having killed around 500
Palestinians in its West Bank offensive, saying Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon had gone "crazy."
"There
are 500 Palestinians killed in the last 12 days in the West Bank,
there is a major Israeli crime going on in the West Bank against our
society," he said.
Israeli
officials had no immediate comment, but a military source disputed
Erakat's figure. However, the source said the total number of
Palestinian deaths in the West Bank operation was "over
200."
Erakat
also accused Israeli forces of carrying out summary executions of
Palestinian prisoners in the northern West Bank town of Jenin's
refugee camp.
Jenin
fell to the army after a week of hard fighting on Wednesday.
"Today
(Wednesday) the Israelis assassinated eight Palestinians in Jenin.
They had surrendered to the army and they (the army) shot them,"
Erakat said.
"Sharon
is making war against the Palestinian people and the Palestinian
leadership to kill all Palestinians and destroy the Palestinian
people. This war will not help the Israeli people. Sharon has gone
crazy," Erakat said.
The
resistance leader in Jenin refugee camp, Sheikh Gamal Abu El-Heiga,
confirmed that the refugee camp fell Wednesday morning, April 10, in
the hands of the Israeli occupation forces which then publicly
executed a large number of Palestinian youth.
Abu
El-Heiga told IslamOnline that the occupation forces were largely in
control of the refugee camp after eight days of fierce Palestinian
resistance. “The occupation force is currently shooting at the
resistance fighters and publicly executing them,” he added.
Abd
El-Salam, a resistance fighter in Jenin, told IslamOnline the Israeli
occupation army bulldozed tens of Palestinian houses and concealing
any evidence of their crimes and atrocities in the camp. “The camp
is almost completely destroyed and will be extinct in no time,” he
added.
Palestinian
witnesses in Jenin said their dead and injured remain lying in the
streets. For its part, the Palestinian leadership said Israel bore
"full responsibility" for the escalation in the conflict and
accused it of "barbaric murders."
Earlier,
Israeli troops prevented U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian
Refugees (UNRWA) and Red Cross workers entering Jenin camp Tuesday,
saying only that there was "a situation" inside as new
reports emerged of Israeli violence, BBC’s online news service
reported.
Peter
Hansen, the UNRWA's commissioner general, accused the Israeli
occupation army of creating a "hellish battleground" in the
midst of the refugees.
