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Israeli Threatens Tougher Response As Palestinians Bury Dead
RAMALLAH, West Bank, March 3 (News Agencies) - The head of the Israeli army threatened Palestinians on Saturday with tougher action, as Palestinians buried four more of their own killed by Israel a day after an arch-hawk was selected as the Jewish state's next defense minister.
"We're going to go one step further in our response, as we are determined with all our force to fight terrorism," warned General Shaul Mofaz, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.
"The escalation in violence is going to continue if the Palestinian Authority does nothing to stop it, which will force us to re-examine our strategy and to expand our range of intervention," he told public radio.
Mofaz called for "much firmer measures to strike terrorists," without being more specific, although he ruled out an Israeli redeployment into zones under Palestinian autonomous control.
Mofaz's hardline, which has been denounced by Israeli doves, was mocked by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
"What is there left to use? Nuclear weapons?" Arafat asked, during an interview with AFP at his Gaza City office.
The Palestinians, along with numerous governments and human rights groups, have criticized Israel repeatedly for using excessive force to crack down on the Palestinian uprising, or Intifada, that broke out late last September.
Some 426 people have been killed and thousands injured since then, most of them Palestinians.
Arafat also insisted that any renewed negotiations with Israel should start from where they left off in late January in Taba, Egypt. Although no agreement was signed after the week of talks, Arafat said they produced concrete results.
"We arrived at a conclusion. We have our witnesses, the European representative, [Miguel Angel] Moratinos, and the Egyptians," he said.
But the Palestinians negotiated at Taba with the government of Ehud Barak, who was crushed at the polls a month ago by right-wing hawk Ariel Sharon, who has said he is not bound by the talks.
Arafat declined to comment on the selection of Binyamin Ben Eliezer as defense minister, saying: "We have to wait and see. We are not interfering in their internal affairs."
Ben Eliezer, a former top general for the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, pledged Friday to "hit those who commit attacks."
Security officers have been on high alert throughout Israel since Thursday, when a service taxi blew up in the northern part of the country, killing one and wounding nine others.
Officials have said the bomber was a Palestinian who hid explosives the day before in downtown Tel Aviv. The explosives, hidden in a bag, were found and defused.
In the Palestinian territories, Friday was one of the bloodiest days in weeks, with three Palestinians shot dead by Israeli soldiers and another dying of wounds suffered earlier in the week.
"Revenge, revenge!" Palestinians shouted Saturday at a funeral procession for two of the victims in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
Gunmen fired into the air, as some mourners waved Palestinian and Iraqi flags and denounced Sharon as a criminal.
Ubey Darraj, 9, was to be buried in nearby El-Bireh, where he was killed at home Friday when Israeli soldiers fired machine-guns at a group of children who were playing with cap guns beneath his family's apartment.
Abdel Karim Issa, 24, who died after being shot in the stomach in a clash with soldiers, was to be buried in the Kalandia refugee camp.
In Gaza City, some 5,000 Palestinians took to the streets to bury Mohammed Mahmoud Hellis, 13, who died Friday, three days after he was hit in the head with an Israeli bullet.
He was shot as he walked home from school near the flashpoint Karni crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip. Witnesses said there were no clashes at the time.
Buried overnight was Mustafa Al-Ramlawi, a 42-year-old vagrant who was also shot and killed near Karni.
The army first said Ramlawi was preparing to set off a bomb, but a spokesman later acknowledged he was unarmed and that the army likely made a tragic mistake.
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