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Palestinian Mother of Two Shot Dead By Israeli Troops
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, July 11 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli soldiers shot a Palestinian mother-of-two dead while the Jewish state also vowed to keep razing Palestinian homes despite international criticism.
Rasmieh el Jabarin, 38, was killed on Israeli territory not far from the flashpoint West Bank town of Hebron when the driver of the collective taxi she was riding in failed to stop at the demand of Israeli troops, Palestinian sources said.
The soldiers then opened fire on the vehicle without warning.
Her death will do little to stem international ire at Israeli tactics after the Jewish state razed more than 30 Palestinian houses and shops in the past two days in the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.
Minister without portfolio Danny Naveh shrugged off U.S. criticism of the demolitions and insisted that all "illegal" Palestinian buildings were targets for Israeli bulldozers.
"I'm sorry about the American criticisms, which anyway are nothing new, but Israel will continue to destroy illegal Palestinian-built homes that are trying to create a new situation on the ground, especially in Jerusalem," he said.
Israeli armored vehicles and bulldozers pushed 100 meters (yards) inside a Gaza Strip refugee camp, which is under full Palestinian security and civil control, and flattened 18 houses and six shops.
The army alleged the buildings were unoccupied and used as cover for attacks against military posts, but the Palestinians and news agencies said dozens of people had been made homeless.
Palestinians and Israeli troops engaged in hours of fierce gun battles round the camp at Rafah, a notorious hotspot, which left six Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers wounded.
On Monday, Israel destroyed 14 homes in a refugee camp in east Jerusalem it said had been built illegally.
"We will seek Arab and international efforts to stop these crimes," Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said.
"However one might justify these actions, they can only lead to new tensions, make it even more difficult for trust to be built between the two sides," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said in Moscow on Wednesday.
"Actions such as these demolitions are highly provocative, they undermine confidence and trust between the parties," U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Tuesday. "They can only make it much more difficult to restore calm."
Boucher said U.S. officials had been in touch with the Israeli government at the highest levels to urge an "immediate halt to any further demolition of Palestinian homes and destruction of Palestinian property."
Britain also said it was "deeply concerned" over the demolitions while the European Union called for an "immediate end to such activities" which threatened international efforts to breath new life into the Middle East peace process.
A June 13 ceasefire negotiated by the United States and aimed at getting the internationally backed Mitchell peace plan underway has failed to take hold on the ground. Both sides accuse the other of repeatedly violating the truce.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told public television late Tuesday that Arafat "wants to stop terrorism because he is in a desperate situation."
When asked about Israeli threats on the Palestinian president reported by the Israeli press, Peres warned: "If we attempt to de-legitimize Yasser Arafat, half of the countries in the world would blindly support him."
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs David Satterfield will travel to the region this week to follow up on efforts to get the Mitchell plan off the ground.
Naveh also told public radio that Israel was still insisting on seeing an uncensored version of a U.N. videotape filmed after the seizure of three Israeli soldiers by the Hezbollah occupation resistance movement last year.
The world body has offered to let Israel see an edited version with the faces of presumed guerrillas obscured but has rebuffed requests to hand over the original version.
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