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Protestors used a 5-hour lifting of a curfew in Ramallah to condemn Israel's violence towards
Palestinians
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GAZA
CITY, June 30 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli occupation
troops fired tank shells and machine-gun bullets at the Khan Yunis
refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip late Saturday, June 29,
Palestinian security sources and witnesses told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The
tanks fired at least six shells at the camp, damaging a number of
houses, but no injuries were reported, they said.
The
Israeli army claimed their forces had opened machine-gun fire, but not
tank fire, on the camp after Palestinian there allegedly fired mortar
shells at a nearby army post in Divanit, which is next to the illegal
Jewish settlement of Neve Dkalim.
No
injuries or damage was reported from the shelling, an army spokeswoman
said. In the central Gaza Strip, close to the Netzarim
crossing, Israeli troops arrested two Palestinians, Palestinian
witnesses told AFP. The occupation army said it was investigating the
incident.
Meanwhile,
in the north of the Strip, close to the illegal ewish settlement of Beit
Hanun, two Israeli bulldozers began razing an area of Palestinian
agricultural land. The army said the two bulldozers were not connected
to any military activity, but belonged to the settlement which was
razing the land in order to use it for its own purposes.
On
Sunday, June 30, a bomb exploded along the route of a passenger train
south of Tel Aviv, lightly damaging a carriage but causing no
casualties, Israeli public radio reported.
The
blast occurred around two kilometers north of Lod station, shattering
the windows of one carriage and causing a halt in rail traffic, the
report said.
In
diplomatic circles, the Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, whose
country is about to take over the E.U. presidency, told a Danish
newspaper that he will present Wednesday, July 3, a new Middle East
peace plan to his U.S. counterpart Colin Powell in Washington.
Denmark,
which assumes Monday the six-month rotating E.U. presidency from Spain,
is pushing for a series of meetings of experts to resolve the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, rather than the holding of a major peace
conference, Moeller told the weekly Soendagsavisen.
“We
must abandon the idea of calling a major international peace conference
to find a solution to this conflict,” he said. “It is not a good
idea. We cannot even get the two parties to the negotiating table.”
Denmark
“will instead propose, on behalf of the E.U., that we begin with
series of meetings on specific subjects, like for example the question
of Palestinian refugees, the security problems between Israelis and
Palestinians, the status of Jerusalem, etc..,” he said.
Under
the plan, the United States, the European Unin, Russia, Arab countries,
Israel and the Palestinians will take part in these meetings, which
should lead to the organizing of a large international peace conference.
At
the G8 Kananaskis summit in Canada, the E.U. rejected calls from U.S.
President George W. Bush Monday for the Palestinians to reject President
Yasser Arafat, insisting that the Palestinians should make their own
choice in the elections.
Meanwhile
the Chinese news agency Xinhua said that Palestinian chief negotiator
Saeb Erekat arrived in Cairo Saturday night for talks with Egyptian
officials on the latest developments in the Palestinian lands.
During
his stay in Cairo, Erekat will meet with Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak on Sunday, Egypt's Press Center told Xinhua.
