Israeli settlers are heavily armed

RAMALLAH, West Bank, May 6 (Islamonline.net & News Agencies) – An Israeli settler was gunned down and two others injured when Palestinians opened fire on their car late Monday, May 5, near Ramallah in the west bank.

An Israeli settler was killed while his 9-year-old daughter and an Israeli soldier were wounded in an ambush by Palestinians on the highway to Shvut Rachel settlement. An army spokesman said troops sealed off the area and launched a manhunt, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The death brought to 3,210 the number of people killed since the Palestinian Intifada against Israeli occupation erupted in September 2000, including 2,420 Palestinians and 730 Israelis, according to an AFP count.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops shot and wounded a 14-year-old Palestinian girl in Bureij refugee camp and a 27-year-old Palestinian man in Khan Yunis, Palestinian security sources said.

They said the man was unarmed and standing in front of his front door when the army opened fire in retaliation for a mortar attack on the nearby settlement of Neve Dekalim that caused no injuries. The circumstances of the teenager's shooting were unclear.

Freeze

Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has decided to suspend the dismantlement of around 10 "unauthorized Jewish settlements" in the West Bank, his ministry said Monday.

Mofaz decided "that with the exception of two (uninhabited) sites, there will be no dismantling until the status of these points is clarified", a ministry spokeswoman told AFP. She stressed, however, that in the end, "all the 'illegal' settlements will be dismantled."

A week ago, the army eliminated one such point, an uninhabited house trailer near al-Khalil (Hebron) in the southern West Bank. A similar settlement nearby is also slated for dismantlement, the spokeswoman said.

Razing unauthorized settlements and a freeze on further construction are two conditions Israel is expected to respect as initial steps in the Middle East "roadmap" to peace drawn up by the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States.

The plan, presented to Israeli and Palestinian officials last week, foresees security guarantees for Israel along with the step-by-step creation of a Palestinian state by the end of 2005.

All Israeli settlements since March 2001, when Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government took office, are to be immediately dismantled under the plan.

Peace Now, an Israeli movement opposed to the settlements, says 34 such sites have been established since that time.

Earlier Monday, Sharon pledged not to miss the chance to make peace with the Palestinians, at a ceremony for soldiers who have fallen in wars since Israel was founded in 1948.

Over the past five years, however, 108 colonization sites have been established, including sites presented as farms, or extensions of existing colonies which were approved by Israeli authorities.

In October, the Israeli army clashed with hundreds of settlers while tearing down part of an illegal colony in the West Bank town of Havat Gilad, which has been rebuilt since.

Roughly 220,000 settlers inhabit around 160 sites in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in addition to 200,000 other Israelis in 12 sites in annexed East Jerusalem, which was occupied in 1967.

Mubarak Congratulates Israel

Harassing Palestinians by Israeli settlers is a daily routine

In a separate related development, Egypt’s veteran President Hosni Mubarak has sent a rare message of congratulations to his Israeli counterpart Moshe Katsav for the Jewish state's national day, officials said Monday.

"It's the first time in several years that the Egyptian president sends such a message," the spokesman for the president's office in Jerusalem, Adar Avissar, told AFP.

Mubarak called in his message to the Jewish state, which will Wednesday, May 7, celebrate the 55th anniversary of its establishment, for closer "cooperation between the two states in order to reach a peace settlement based on the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel and Israel's withdrawal" from the occupied territories.

He also hoped for "peace, stability and security for all the peoples of the region", especially the Israelis, the spokesman said.

Egypt in 1979 became the first Arab state to make peace with Israel, but it recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv in November 2000 in protest at what Cairo viewed as Israel's excessive use of force to put down the Palestinian Intifada.

In Cairo, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher Monday accused Israel of trying to scupper implementation of the Middle East "roadmap" for peace which is backed by the international community.

"Israel has not stopped and will not stop efforts at provocation so as to block the roadmap," which was presented to Israel and the Palestinians last week, he told reporters, singling out house demolitions and targeted killings.

The peace plan calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state in stages by 2005.