|
Israel Attacks Palestinians as Arafat, Peres Schedule Talks
NABLUS, West Bank, Aug 23 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Hopes for a truce to end almost 11 months of Middle East bloodshed suffered another setback Thursday as Israeli forces launched a rocket attack on Palestinians, killing one and leaving a dozen others injured, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Continuing an aggressive policy, three Israeli tanks entered the Palestinian refugee camp of Deir Al Balah in the center of the Gaza Strip Thursday, provoking encounters that left eight Palestinians injured, Palestinian security officials said.
The tanks, accompanied by around 10 heavy armored army jeeps, rolled more than one kilometer (half a mile) into Palestinian-controlled territory, officials said.
Six Palestinian policemen were injured, two of them seriously, along with two civilians.
The tanks fired three shells, damaging four Palestinian houses and two cars, officials said. They also opened heavy machinegun fire as the battle blazed for almost an hour. The tanks then withdrew.
In a separate incident at the nearby El Breij refugee camp, Israeli tanks blasted a Palestinian security post, although there were no immediate reports of injuries, security officials said.
In Nablus, the Israeli army fired two rockets at the car of a colonel in the Palestinian security services, slightly injuring him, in what a Palestinian leader said was an assassination attempt.
Palestinian officials said the target of the attack, which occurred in the West Bank town of Nablus, was Colonel Jihad Al-Masimi, 46, also a local leader of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.
Two other people, the driver and a bystander, were also injured in the strike near the Balata refugee camp in south Nablus, hospital sources said.
"We hold Israel responsible for this assassination attempt and all its consequences," said Issan Abu Bakr, Fatah's Nablus leader.
Palestinian officials said Israel wanted to kill Masimi because they accuse him of allegedly being behind an attack on Jewish settlers when he was the head of the Palestinian criminal investigations department in the area two years ago.
Meanwhile, Israel Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said he would meet Arafat for ceasefire talks next week. But Arafat said he doubted Peres had the political authority to reach a lasting deal to end the violence, which has left 733 people dead, 565 of which are Palestinians, AFP reported.
Arafat went on to say that real power was in the hands of right-wing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has been a staunch advocate of what Israel terms "targeted killings" but what the global community and the Palestinians regard as assassination.
Meanwhile, the official Palestinian representative in Germany said in an interview broadcast Thursday that Berlin would be one of the best places to hold a planned meeting soon between Arafat and Peres, news agencies reported.
This is the second invitation after Switzerland, which also volunteered to host the meeting earlier this week, made an offer as well.
"Since the reunification [of Germany in 1990], Berlin has a political weight," Abdallah Frangi told the public broadcaster Suedwestrundfunk (SWR), reported AFP.
He also noted that it was at a European Union summit in Berlin two years ago in which the E.U. declared support for a Palestinian state. The March 1999 summit backed the creation of a "viable Palestinian state" through negotiations with Israel.
The principle of an Arafat-Peres meeting soon was agreed upon through the mediation of German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer earlier this week, but the idea of holding it in Berlin came from Arafat, with Fischer remaining non-committal.
Meanwhile, Arafat went to Pakistan and China for talks with the countries' leaders on the latest Middle East situation. This came as part of a brief Asian tour, which started with India, where he met Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in New Delhi.
After talks with Vajpayee, which lasted about 30 minutes, Arafat did not speak to waiting journalists and instead drove straight to the airport en route to Pakistan and China.
An Indian diplomat said, "The talks had gone off well."
"The Palestinian leader spoke about the situation in the region and sought India's help in restarting talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis," the diplomat added.
During his meetings in New Delhi, Arafat was expected to ask for India's support in supporting the equation of Zionism with racism, an agenda scheduled to be addressed at the U.N.-sponsored World Conference on Racism Xenophobia and Related Intolerances in Durban, South Africa, later this month.
Last week, Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh urged Arafat and Peres to put an end to the violence. Upon his arrival in the Indian capital late Wednesday, Arafat said a proposal to meet with Peres was still viable.
"It is still a proposal. I've met Shimon Peres several times. Last time, I met him in Egypt. So we have no objection," Arafat told reporters.
"We are waiting for a final response from" German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who has been working to set up the meeting, Arafat said.
However, in an interview with the official Chinese news agency Xinhua Wednesday, ahead of his visit to Beijing, Arafat cast doubt on the relevance of the talks.
"In Israel, it is Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, not Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who makes decisions," he told Xinhua.
|
