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Israeli Tank Incursion Kills Three Palestinians After Truce Talks
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, Sept 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - On the eve of renewed security cooperation after a break of two months, an Israeli tank incursion into Gaza killed three Palestinians and rattled an accord to work towards a lasting truce Thursday, news agencies reported.
Palestinian security sources said at least 31 others were wounded, 10 of them seriously, as tanks fired on a Palestinian refugee camp, reported Agence France- Presse (AFP).
The incursion overnight Wednesday came just hours after Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat agreed to consolidate a truce and brought a quick condemnation from an Arafat aide.
As many as five tanks moved for several hours about 100 yards into Palestinian territory near Rafah, on the border with Egypt, accompanied by bulldozers.
The tanks opened fire with heavy machine-guns and cannons on a nearby refugee camp, the sources said, adding that bulldozers destroyed eight houses.
Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rudeina said "the Israeli military operation is an attempt... to torpedo the results of the meeting" between Arafat and Peres.
He called on the U.S. government and the world community to condemn the action as well, saying it had "erased world efforts to restore calm" in the Middle East.
At Gaza airport, not far from Rafah, Peres and Arafat agreed on a package of measures to stamp out violence and restore trust, almost a year to the day since the start of the al-Aqsa Intifada (uprising) which erupted on September 28, 2000, and which has claimed the lives of more than 800 people, the majority of whom are Palestinians, including many children and teenagers.
The talks, often delayed by Israeli premier Ariel Sharon's demand for 48 hours of absolute calm before allowing the high-level meeting, remained in doubt until the very last minute following a bomb attack that left three Israeli occupation soldiers slightly injured in the Gaza Strip.
The bomb had apparently been placed in a tunnel dug by Palestinians up to the perimeter of a military position at Tarmit, on the edge of the border town of Rafah, close to where the talks were later.
Israel Radio reported that Palestinians had dug a tunnel under the army post over recent months, undercover of nightly gun battles, and filled it with explosives, BBC's online service reported.
They then detonated the explosives at about 3 a.m. (8:00pm EST) Wednesday, destroying a wall at the occupation army base, and injuring the three Israeli occupation soldiers with slight injuries.
At a meeting in Damascus, six Palestinian resistance groups, as well as Lebanon's Hezbollah, on Thursday denounced the truce-consolidation accord and said they were not committed by any deal with Israel.
"There is no reason why the Intifada should be the victim of explosions in the United States," said Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal, referring to the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
The condemnation came during a conference held in the Syrian capital, which included some 70 figures of the Arab world and officials from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as from Hezbollah.
Also represented were the Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC).
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