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Palestinian Baby Killed by Settlers as Leaders Await G8 Results
JERUSALEM, July 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Ongoing violence in occupied Palestine claimed three more Palestinian lives Thursday, including that of a baby girl, as Middle East leaders gave divided views on a call for international monitoring of the conflict that will be decided on at the G8 summit Friday.
Israel rejected a call for monitors Thursday by foreign ministers from the Group of Eight nations, while the Palestinians, who welcomed the call, said they feared Israel was still plotting "war".
On the ground, there was fierce violence late Thursday, sparked by a road shooting in which the three Palestinians, including a three-month-old baby, were killed by Jewish settlers.
The victims, all members of the al-Tmezi family - Mohammad Saleimeh, Mohammad Hilmi, and the baby, Diya Maruan, were in a car driving around eight miles to the west of Hebron when they came under fire some 500 yards from an Israeli army roadblock. Four others were wounded in the same incident, as the seven were shot from an overtaking vehicle on their way back from a wedding.
Israeli public radio said a "committee for road security" formed by extremist settlers had claimed the attack in a statement. The group had already claimed other attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank in recent months.
The settlers' main organization, a council of settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, condemned the attack.
"If it was Israelis who committed this attack, the settlers' council can only condemn in the strongest terms this immoral and illegal act which can only endanger the work accomplished by developing settlements," the organization said.
The incident provoked exchanges between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers, and those clashes left a further 10 Palestinians wounded, one of them a 60-year-old who was seriously injured in the stomach, hospital sources said.
The Palestinian Authority in Gaza, which held the Israeli government responsible, condemned the incidents.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon also condemned the murder of the three family members.
"The prime minister and the Israeli government condemn all forms of violence and terrorism, no matter who carries them out. We regret the fact that innocent people have lost their lives," a statement from the prime minister's office said.
Earlier, Sharon rejected the monitor plans and told Israel's second television channel that it was "important that no decision be taken to constrain the state of Israel into accepting an initiative that it rejects."
Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer told U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld by phone that "the deployment of international observers would not contribute to calm on the ground."
"On the contrary," he said it would "create the feeling among the Palestinians that they had a shield behind which they would continue to carry out violence and terrorism."
Sharon's spokesman Raanan Gissin told AFP earlier, "As long as there is continuing violence and terrorism it would be useless to deploy monitors in the territories."
In Rome, G8 foreign ministers agreed to support in principle the deployment of monitors, an initiative the United States had previously opposed out of deference to Israel's vehement dislike of the idea.
"We believe that in these circumstances, third party monitoring accepted by both parties would serve their interests in implementing the Mitchell report," said a document approved by the ministers of the G8 nations: Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.
The Palestinians hailed the proposal, which has been the subject of a long-standing appeal to the international community.
"Sending an observer force to the Palestinian territories is the best way of rescuing the peace process," Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's top aide Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.
But he said the G8 should set up a mechanism to force the Sharon government to accept the initiative, accusing Israel of failing to abide by the Mitchell report, an internationally backed plan aimed at halting the violence and bringing the two sides back to the negotiating table.
Meanwhile, Israel - on alert for a feared wave of attacks - was shaken by a car bomb explosion in the Mediterranean resort of Netanya, but police said all evidence indicated a criminal attack.
Israel sent reinforcements to the West Bank following a bloody surge of violence that saw two Israeli soldiers blown up by a bomb on Monday and four Palestinians killed in an Israeli helicopter strike against the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
Israel said the action was a warning to the Palestinians to stop the uprising, which has cost more than 650 lives, rather than a prelude to a major offensive.
"No one aims to attack the Palestinian Authority… and we have no intention to reoccupy any part of the zone" under Palestinian control, Ben Eliezer told Israeli public radio.
The Israeli government denied a report last week by the influential Jane's information group that claimed it had seen an executive summary of a proposal presented to the Israeli government on updated plans by generals for an all-out assault to smash the Palestinian Authority.
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