|
Israel Shoots Palestinian Teen in Gaza as U.S. Envoys Arrive
GAZA CITY, Nov 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Further complicating the mission of U.S. envoys, Israeli soldiers shot and wounded a 17-year-old Palestinian Monday evening in the flashpoint southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, without any apparent provocation, Palestinian hospital sources said.
The youth was walking near the Israeli military crossing point into Egypt when he was hit in the leg with a live bullet, they said.
Israeli soldiers also stopped a taxi at a military checkpoint leading into the nearby city of Khan Younis and arrested four Palestinians, Palestinian security sources said. They were not able to elaborate on the reasons the men were detained.
The security sources also said Israeli soldiers had opened fire with heavy machine guns at a checkpoint near the Khan Younis refugee camp, but without causing any injuries.
An unusually high number of Israeli helicopters and F-16 fighter jets have been flying over the Gaza Strip, they added.
Hopes ran low for top U.S. peace envoys who arrived in Israel Monday with a mission to stem a rising tide of bloodshed as Israel increased its aggressions against the Palestinians.
As the death toll of the 14-month Palestinian uprising neared 1,000 over 800 of whom are Palestinian, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns and retired general Anthony Zinni arrived in Israel to push for a ceasefire that will hold on the ground, unlike a rash of failed truces beforehand.
"I am skeptical about their chances of succeeding. With all due respect to General Zinni, more important officials from the U.S. administration have come here without obtaining anything," said right-wing Israeli minister without portfolio Danny Naveh.
In Egypt, which the two Americans are scheduled to visit Thursday, an Al-Akhbar
newspaper report was even gloomier.
"The mission of the envoy and the general is certainly doomed to fail before it even starts," it said.
Despite the lack of fanfare, both sides were looking to Zinni and Burns to break the vicious cycle of violence and find a way to implement the internationally-backed Mitchell peace plan.
Before the diplomats' arrival, hard-line Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon reiterated the need for seven-days complete calm before moving ahead with the Mitchell plan. The initiative broadly outlines a series of measures to defuse tensions and rebuild shattered trust in the region.
The Palestinians and European officials have slammed Sharon's requirement, saying it stalls the peace process.
Israel wants Zinni, a retired Marines Corp general and former commander of U.S. forces in the Gulf, to impress on Arafat the need to jail extremists and stop attacks on Israel, as set out in the Mitchell plan.
The Palestinians, bolstered by U.S. support for an independent state side-by-side with Israel, want him to rein in Israeli attacks on militant suspects, such as the assassination Friday of a top political leader.
Israel's internationally condemned policy of assassinations has claimed the lives of at least 70 Palestinian political leaders and figures in the 14 months since the current Intifada, or uprising started.
"Without a strong American position which is determined to end the Israeli escalation of violence, the American envoy's mission will fail and Sharon will use it to cover his crimes," said Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo.
Zinni and Burns met by Israeli intelligence and internal security chiefs, as the violence reach a new peak, with a dozen Palestinians killed over the weekend.
Five Palestinian children were ripped to pieces when they accidentally detonated an Israeli booby trap designed to kill Palestinians in the Gaza Strip Thursday, a tragedy that sent shockwaves through the relative calm of recent weeks.
The blast preceded a storm of violence, with Israel assassinating at least three Palestinian political figures, including a senior commander from of the Islamic Resistance Movement or Hamas.
Israel also launched missile strikes on security targets across the Gaza Strip early Sunday.
The U.S. envoys are due to meet with Sharon, his Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer, before going on to meet Arafat on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, both Israel and the Palestinians announced their line-ups for ceasefire negotiations: the Palestinian side will be led by Ahmed Qorei, the parliamentary speaker., while the Israeli delegation will be headed by General Meir Dagan, who holds a right-wing stance similar to Sharon's.
Arafat was on the last leg of a tour of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan on Monday, to coordinate the Arab position vis-a-vis the U.S. delegation, whose mission he gave his full blessing.
|
