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Young boys walk through the rubble of a home destroyed in Gaza
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OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, September 11 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A bomb
exploded under the car of an Israeli navy officer in the Israeli village
of Harish by the West Bank overnight, Israeli army radio reported
Wednesday, September 11.
The
pipe bomb used in the attack is a common weapon in the Palestinian
militants’ armory, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Suspects
were apprehended in the area, north east of Tel Aviv but opened fire on
a police patrol and fled, the radio said. No one was hurt in the bomb
blast.
Meanwhile,
Israeli occupation troops and tanks launched a double incursion into the
autonomous Palestinian northern Gaza Strip overnight, Palestinian
security forces said Wednesday, September 11.
An
Israeli armored column staged an incursion late Tuesday into Beit Lahia
in the northern Gaza Strip, the sources said.
Shots
were heard in the sector, the sources said, but there was no word on
casualties.
Meanwhile
a second Israeli army unit made a similar incursion into neighboring
Beit Hanoun where another exchange of fire ensued between armed
Palestinians and Israeli troops, they said. Here too there were no
reports of casualties.
The
Israeli occupation army said in a statement that 10 Palestinians linked
to anti-Israeli attacks had been arrested during the operation.
A
bomb exploded during the search for suspects and troops responded with
gunfire without causing any casualties, the army added.
The
Israeli army also said that four other wanted Palestinians had been
picked up in the West Bank.
In
another development, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was facing a
possible parliamentary vote of confidence Wednesday over a
much-criticized cabinet reshuffle.
Arafat
was set to meet Palestinian legislative councilors from his own Fatah
movement here ahead of an the expected parliamentary vote of confidence
later in the day, Fatah member Jamal Choubaki told AFP.
Jamal
Shaati, a Fatah deputy from Jenin in the northern West Bank, said
earlier that he and his colleagues would meet during the day to decide
whether or not to lend their support to Arafat’s cabinet, reshuffled
in May under pressure from home and abroad.
“There
is so far no decision from Fatah as a (parliamentary) bloc on how to
vote, but I can say there's a trend not to vote for the government,”
he told AFP.
“This
government is only an extension of the previous one and we have not seen
any change so far. We are looking for fundamental change, which we have
not seen any sign of.”
The
vote had been scheduled for Tuesday, but did not take place before the
end of the session and was postponed to Wednesday, parliament sources
said.
Fatah’s
acting West Bank chief, Hussein Sheikh, who is not an MP, called Monday
for members to vote the cabinet down, saying the new line-up included
ministers opposed to the two-year-old Palestinian uprising, or intifada.
On
Tuesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met in a west Jerusalem
hotel with a senior Palestinian delegation headed by chief Palestinian
negotiator Saeb Erakat, both sides said.
“We
cannot speak of a positive result after the meeting,” Erakat told AFP
about the talks, adding that political, economic, humanitarian and
security issues had been discussed.
However,
the Israeli foreign ministry issued a statement at the end of the
meeting saying it would open the cities of Jericho and Bethlehem - the
only two West Bank towns not reoccupied by the army - to tourists in a
move apparently aimed at easing the ailing Palestinian economy.
Both
sides also said they agreed to meet again “in the coming days”. The
Israeli foreign ministry statement said Israel’s Defense Minister
Binyamin Ben Eliezer and Palestinian interior minister Abdel Razaq
al-Yahya would soon meet in what would be an “opportunity for the
Palestinians to raise the possibility of adding Al Khalil (Hebron) to
the Gaza-Bethlehem plan”.
Peres
was accompanied at the meeting by Communications Minister Reuven Rivlin,
a member of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s right-wing Likud
party, the statement said.
Before
the talks, Erakat said the Palestinian side would include interior
minister Abdel Razaq al-Yahya, civil affairs minister Jamil al-Tarifi,
minister of finance Salam Fayad and economy minister Maher al-Masri.
Erakat
said earlier the meeting was taking place at the urging of the United
States and the European Union “to discuss several accords which have
not been implemented, including the Israeli withdrawal from parts of the
Gaza Strip and Hebron.”
That
was a clear reference to the August security plan which called for
Israeli troop withdrawals from Palestinian self-rule areas in return for
a Palestinian security force crackdown on anti-Israeli attacks.
