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Hours After Israel Raids Jenin, Blast in Jerusalem Kills
20
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| The
latest attack comes as Israel builds a controversial security
fence around the West Bank |
OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, June 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Just hours
after the Israeli occupation army invaded the West Bank town of Jenin,
Monday evening, June 17, at least 20 people were killed and
dozens injured in a resistance attack on a bus in southern Jerusalem
Tuesday morning, June 18.
The
suspected attack in the Pat district came as U.S. President George W.
Bush was preparing to announce his strategy to relaunch the Middle
East peace process after 20 months of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed.
It
also came after Israeli armoured vehicles and a bulldozer rumbled into
the West Bank town of Jenin
Monday night, less than a day after a previous incursion there.
Shots
could be heard in the air as the army carried out one of its hit and
run raids that have become frequent in the months of May and June.
The
army had also briefly entered Jenin
on Saturday and Sunday.
The
Jenin refugee camp was the scene of what international human rights
groups described as atrocious crimes against humanity. At least dozens
of Palestinian civilians were killed and hundreds of homes demolished
by Israeli bulldozers during Israel’s massive military offensive
codenamed “Operation Defensive Shield”, which it launched late
March 2002.
Israeli
security forces have been on maximum alert in Jerusalem fearing
Palestinian attacks, and the latest strike comes just two days after
Israel began constructing a controversial “security” fence along
the West Bank.
This
fence is being built by Israel to prevent Palestinians from
infiltrating into Israel and carrying out resistance attacks.
The
fence has drawn bitter criticism for different reasons from both
Palestinians and right-wing Israelis and further raised tensions in
the region with all eyes on Washington awaiting the latest U.S.
strategy for Middle East peace.
The
fence would mostly cordon off the Green Line, the boundary that marks
the frontier between Israel and the West Bank, which Israel seized,
along with the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Middle East War.
The
National Religious Party, on the influential right-wing of Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's government, demanded it be shut down at a
stormy cabinet meeting Sunday.
The
NRP fears the fence will become the acknowledged border between Israel
and a future Palestinian state, pre-empting eventual negotiations and
leaving Jewish settlers on the West Bank isolated, AFP said.
The
Palestinians see the security fence as another move towards South
Africa's old apartheid system. Experts also doubt how successful it
will be in bottling up would-be resistance operations.
“Israel
is trying to set new international political borders,” said Khalil
Eltafki, head of the map section in the House of the Orient.
The
United States on Monday took a dim view of Israel’s weekend start of
the security fence as President George W. Bush mulled a new strategy
to restart the Middle East peace process.
The
White House and State Department, as well as First Lady Laura Bush,
did not directly criticize Israel for the fence but called on the
Jewish state to consider the consequences of any action it took.
“I
hope that we can continue to work peace in the Middle East,” Mrs.
Bush said in rare comments on U.S. policy in an interview with
American Urban Radio Networks. “I don’t think that a fence will be
some long-lasting sign of peace.”
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