Israel
Demolishes Homes, Palestinians: Talks Failed
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A
Palestinian boy examines his home after it was destroyed by the
Israeli army |
OCCUPIED
BETHLEHEM, West Bank, August 8 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The
Israeli army early Thursday, August 8, demolished the family homes of
four Palestinian resistance activists, while Palestinians said talks
between Israeli and Palestinian officials on an Israeli security plan
to tackle the 22-month conflict “failed”.
Three
of the homes were in the Bethlehem area and one in the West Bank.
Two
of the families concerned were those of Daud Abu Sweil in Artas and of
Akram Nabtiti in Doha. Both Sweil and Nabtiti belonged to the
Palestinian resistance movement Islamic Jihad, Agence France-Presse
(AFP) reported.
An
Israeli army spokesman in Jerusalem confirmed the destruction of the
homes, saying Sweil had carried out an attack in west Jerusalem on
December 5, 2001 while Nabtiti had blown himself up in east Jerusalem
on March 7 this year.
The
army also destroyed two other houses, a Palestinian security source
said.
One
was at Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, belonging to Ali Mussa Abu Alaan,
considered the leader on the West Bank of the Ezzedin Al-Qassam
Brigades, the armed branch of Hamas, a Palestinian security source
said.
The
other, in Tubas, in the north of the West Bank, belonged to Hazel
Fukaha, the local leader in Jenin of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an
armed offshoot of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah group.
Fukaha
was arrested three days ago and Israel accuses him of having giving
the orders for the attack on a bus in northern Israel earlier this
week in which eight people were killed and around 50 injured.
On
a diplomatic front, talks between Israeli and Palestinian officials on
an Israeli security plan to tackle the 22-month conflict “failed, as
Israel imposed new conditions,” Nabil Abu Rudeina, a close aide to
Yasser Arafat, told AFP early Thursday.
“Israel
went back on its position of Monday under which the security plan
would also be applied to Bethlehem after Gaza, saying it would only be
applied to Gaza, and adding many new conditions,” the aide to the
Palestinian leader said after Wednesday’s meeting. He gave no
further details.
The
Palestinian cabinet had earlier given a tentative green light to an
Israeli plan titled “Gaza First” during an emergency session.
The
plan presented on Monday, August 5, by Israeli Defense Minister
Binyamin Ben Eliezer to newly-appointed Palestinian interior minister
Abdelrazak Al-Yahya at a meeting in Jerusalem broadly set out an
Israeli withdrawal from re-occupied land in return for a crackdown on
militants.
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Living
in the ruins: A Palestinian mother and her children |
The
leadership decided to agree with this plan as it is the first step of
a comprehensive withdrawal from the re-occupied territories and a
return to the borders of 28 September 2000, when the Palestinian
uprising broke out, public works minister Azzem Al-Ahmed said
Wednesday, August 7.
The
plan, to be first applied in Gaza, would then have been applied in
Bethlehem in the West Bank where police had been told after Monday’s
meeting to prepare to resume their functions.
A
member of the Palestinian Authority Zyad Abu Zyad on Thursday called
for an end to Palestinian attacks in Israel in an interview on Israeli
public radio.
“The
attacks on civilians in Israel must stop immediately. We must keep
this goal in sight so as to be able to resume negotiations,” he said
speaking in Hebrew.
“The
attacks must stop so that the situation can get back to normal and a
ceasefire can be established.”
The
Islamic resistance movement Hamas stressed Wednesday that it rejected
the plan which it said tried to “sow the seeds of chaos, internal
divisions and civil war” among Palestinians.
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