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Israel
Targets School Children As U.S. & Israel Unify Stance
GAZA CITY, Palestine, Nov.
22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - At least four Palestinian schoolchildren
were killed in a blast Thursday after one of them kicked an unexploded Israeli
tank shell that had been fired in recent days, Palestinian security officials
said, news agencies reported.
The
shell was in the school yard in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip when the
children found it and one of them kicked it, said Colonel Khaled Abu al-Ula,
charged with liaising with Israeli occupation forces in the area, reported
Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Hospital officials said
they had taken charge of one intact body and three pairs of severed hands, but
the state of mutilation of the bodies precluded immediate identification of the
victims.
The
deaths brought to 981 the number of people killed since the start of Al-Aqsa
Intifada or uprising against
Israeli occupation in September 2000, including 770 Palestinians – the
majority are teenagers and children – and 189 Israelis.
Earlier,
Palestinian security officials said Israeli forces fired tank shells in the area
and killed three children, a charge the Israeli army denied, reported AFP.
In
other incidents, Israeli soldiers captured six Palestinian students during an
overnight raid into Palestinian-ruled territory near the West Bank city of
Ramallah, Palestinian officials said Thursday.
Using a tank and armored
vehicles, the soldiers moved in to the university town of Bir Zeit and seized
the students, who were members of the main Palestinian Resistance movements
Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
One
witness said the Israeli troops had filmed the capture on video.
The
Israeli army meanwhile said it closed several Palestinian Authority offices near
occupied east Jerusalem overnight in what it claimed as an operation to prevent
"terrorist activities."
“The
offices in Azariya in the West Bank are used by Palestinian general intelligence
services, preventative security and public security,” an army spokesman said.
He
said Azariya was in so-called zone B of the West Bank, under Palestinian
civilian rule but Israeli security control.
Meanwhile,
U.S. president George W. Bush is set to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon next month, the White House said Wednesday, as two U.S. envoys prepared
to depart for the Middle East this weekend for talks aimed at getting Israel and
the Palestinians back to the peace table, said AFP.
In
a statement announcing Sharon’s December 3-4 working visit the White House
said that the United States and Israel shared common interests including the
international campaign against “terrorism” and that other bilateral and
regional issues will also be on the agenda.
The
announcement of the visit follows a speech on Monday by Secretary of State Colin
Powell who vowed stepped-up U.S. engagement in the region, starting with the
dispatch of the envoys.
Shortly
before the statement was released, Bush and Powell met at the White House with
Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs William Burns and retired
Marine Corps general Anthony Zinni, who are to depart for the Middle East on
Sunday.
They
met "with the president and the secretary and discussed their travel to the
region and their goals," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
"They were hearing from the president what he wants them to do."
Earlier
Wednesday, Powell spoke by telephone with Sharon to lay the groundwork for
Burns' and Zinni's trip and firm up the prime minister's visit to Washington.
"Prime
Minister Sharon said he looked forward to the arrival of our team," Boucher
said. "He is willing to work with them."
Meanwhile
in Ramallah, the Palestinian National Authority issued a statement late
Wednesday, following it’s weekly meeting emphasizing that “Peace and
stability will never be achieved as long as the Israelis continue their
dangerous settlement activities and expansion, especially in Jerusalem”,
reported Palestinian News Agency WAFA.
The PNA also stressed that the Israeli Government does
not respect the foreign governments’ appeals and requests to stop the
violations against the Palestinians rights, said WAFA, adding that the
intentions of the Israeli government are to sabotage the Palestinian and the
International efforts to calm the area and strengthen the ceasefire.
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