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Israeli Military Campaign Continues Before Blair Visit
TULKAREM, Nov 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli helicopters blasted a Palestinian car in the West Bank Thursday, killing at least one man, just hours before British Prime Minister Tony Blair was due to arrive for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
The new death brings to seven the number of Palestinian leaders assassinated by Israeli forces in the West Bank in less than 12 hours.
"In the 'ugly' missile strike Thursday, five Israeli U.S.-made Apache helicopters were seen hovering in the air southeast of the West Bank city of Tulkarem before they shot missiles at a taxicab carrying Palestinians," said Tulkarem governor Izzedine al-Sharif, quoted by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.
At least one person whose identity was not immediately known was killed in the attack, al-Sharif said.
The body of the victim was too badly burned to be immediately identified, according to Palestinian medics.
Helicopter-borne Israeli soldiers then moved into Palestinian-controlled areas and chased wounded passengers who fled the scene, al-Sharif added.
Israeli forces killed six Palestinians in several attacks Wednesday, including a helicopter assault.
Palestinian security sources also said that the village of Sillat Al-Dhahir near Jenin is being shelled by Israeli forces from the nearby Jewish settlement of Homish, according to WAFA.
Voice of Palestine Radio (VOP) said the shelling has caused extensive damage to a school and a number of houses in the village. An unidentified Palestinian child was also reported injured in the attack.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that Israeli special forces kidnapped another Hamas activist near Nablus. The abduction appears to be part of Israel's avowed policy to kill or arrest Palestinians deemed to be a threat, or those whom Israel says the Palestinian Authority has failed to arrest, AFP said.
In addition, Israeli tanks raided a West Bank village Wednesday in an attempt to seize members of Islamic Jihad, who were suspected of planning an imminent bomb attack.
Meanwhile, Tony Blair was scheduled to arrive in Israel from Jordan on the final leg of a bruising regional tour. Blair's trip is aimed at securing Arab and Muslim support for the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan.
The prime minister, who recently backed the idea of a "viable" Palestinian state, will face one of the most grueling tests of his regional whistle stop tour when he holds discussions with Israeli leaders.
Some segments of the British press called the prime minister's earlier stopover in Syria a humiliation and a "public dressing down". The assertions were prompted after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad insisted in a press conference on including "Israeli terrorism" against the Palestinians in a discussion on international terrorism.
Blair's trip to Syria, the first by a British premier in three decades, is unlikely to earn him any sympathy in Israel. Damascus is the base of a dozen occupation-resistance groups opposed to Israel that the Jewish state has branded as terrorist organizations.
Comments by Blair's foreign secretary, Jack Straw, created some controversy last month when he visited Israel after a groundbreaking trip to Iran. Straw reportedly made public remarks linking the Israel-Palestinian conflict to global terrorism.
Two weeks ago, Blair met Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in London and pledged his full backing for a Palestinian state that posed no threat to Israel's own security and integrity. Blair's comments were similar to those made recently by U.S. President George W. Bush.
The Palestinians had high hopes for Blair's first visit to the territories since the bitter uprising against Israel's military occupation began 13 months ago.
Ahmed Abdel Rahman, the Palestinian Authority cabinet's secretary-general, said Arafat hopes Blair will make a "historic declaration, historic promise to put the Palestinians and Israelis on equal footing."
Blair was to meet hardline Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem before jetting down to Gaza to meet Arafat.
Meanwhile, as Israel pressed ahead with its "targeted killing" policy, the speaker of the Palestinian parliament, Ahmed Qorei, said the Palestinians should declare their own state "immediately," saying that both sides, as well as the international community, backed the idea of an independent Palestine.
He said Sharon and his foreign minister, Shimon Peres, are "not against a Palestinian state. Bush and Blair are supporting it.
"I think it is time for the Palestinians to declare a Palestinian state and to ask the Americans, the British, the Europeans and Israel to recognize it," said Qorei.
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