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Israel Fires Shells At Palestinians Despite Ceasefire
GAZA CITY, May 23 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli tanks fired two shells on a Palestinian Authority security police position south of Gaza City Wednesday despite Israeli claims of a ceasefire, a Palestinian official, quoted by AFP, said.
The head of general security in the Gaza Strip, Abdel Razeq al-Majeida, said Israeli shells were fired from an army post near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim, severely damaging the police building.
"This shelling was unprovoked and it proves that Israel's call for a ceasefire is a lie," Majeida said.
Palestinian security and medical sources said five Palestinians, two of them children, were injured when Israeli tanks fired on a refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip during an incursion into a Palestinian-controlled area.
It was the fourth raid by the Israeli army into Palestinian-run territory in the Gaza Strip Wednesday.
The attack came despite Israel claiming to have implemented what it called a "unilateral ceasefire" in the Palestinian territories since Tuesday night following a call by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
"Under the terms of the new policy, the army will not initiate operations and will not mount incursions into Palestinian autonomous zones," a senior Israeli official said.
The latest raids bring to at least 20 the number of Israeli incursions into self-rule areas of the Gaza Strip in 11 days, in contravention of the 1993 autonomy accords.
On efforts to put an end to Israel's continuous aggression against the Palestinians, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat arrived in Paris Wednesday for talks with French leaders on the latest efforts to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Arafat, accompanied by cabinet minister and peace negotiator Saeb Erakat, was to meet with the French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, President Jacques Chirac and Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine.
"Our main goal, along with our partners in the European Union and the United States, is to stop the violence from escalating and to renew the political dialogue," a French foreign ministry official said.
The official said France believed a report released Monday on the Middle East crisis and a Jordanian-Egyptian peace initiative were a "sound basis" to end the latest bloodshed.
Arafat's one-day visit, the first to the West since the latest outbreak of violence erupted eight months ago, coincides with a new U.S.-backed initiative to restore peace in the region.
French authorities, often accused by Israel of being pro-Arab or pro-Palestinian, said their meeting with Arafat was not aimed at siding with either party to the conflict.
During his visit, Arafat urged U.S. President George W. Bush in a telephone call Wednesday to intervene to put a halt to "Israeli attacks" following several incidents in the Gaza Strip, Arafat's aide, Nabil Abu Rudeina, said.
Abu Rudeina said the Palestinian leader made the appeal when Bush telephoned him in Paris.
Arafat also will visit Moscow on May 29th for talks with top Russian officials concerning the conflict in the Middle East, moving up a June visit because of escalated tensions in the region, the Palestinian Embassy in Russia said Tuesday.
Arafat's agenda in Moscow was not yet clear, said the press service of the Palestinian Embassy in Moscow.
Russia is a co-sponsor of the Middle East peace process, along with the United States, but has played a far smaller role. Moscow still enjoys some remnants of its Soviet-era ties with Arab countries of the Middle East, but has developed friendly relations with Israel in recent years.
In another escalation of the tense situation in the Middle East, Israel issued Wednesday a new warning to Syria that it would retaliate if the Lebanese Hezbollah group strikes Israeli positions.
Israel's Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer, speaking on the eve of the first anniversary of the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon, repeated a threat he made Sunday.
"We hold the Syrians solely responsible for what is happening in Lebanon. This is why we will continue to fire on them in the event of Hezbollah attacks," Ben Eliezer said.
Israeli troops along the occupied border have been put on a state of high alert for fear of rocket attacks or attempted Hezbollah cross-border operations ahead of the anniversary.
Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah pledged Tuesday that his movement would fight alongside the Palestinians until Israel is defeated.
However, the Lebanese French-language L'Orient Le Jour daily reported Wednesday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had reassured Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri that Hezbollah would not stir things up against Israel, news agencies said.
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