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Israel's Sharon To Meet Bush As Arafat Trapped In Ramallah
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| Will Arafat remain trapped in Ramallah even after Sharon meets with Bush?
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OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, Feb. 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Israel Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, will travel to Washington late Wednesday for his fourth meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush. At the same time, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, snubbed by Bush during a U.S. visit last year, remains confined in Ramallah by Israeli forces, news agencies reported.
The divergence in positions between the two leaders reflects the swing of the position of the U.S. concerning the hawkish Israeli leader, both since September 11 and since Israel accused Arafat of smuggling weapons from Iran.
Sharon's last visit to the United States at the end of November 2001 was cut short when the Palestinian resistance movement group Hamas carried out a retaliatory martyr operation on Israel's cities, followed by a string of air raids by the Israeli forces on symbols of Arafat's authority.
Sharon has since destroyed Arafat's helicopters in a series of strikes and confined him to his West Bank headquarters, drawing only a muted response from Washington, which has increasingly backed his tough line on the veteran Palestinian leader.
In another development, Israel’s human rights group B'Tselem has accused the Israeli army of flagrantly violating international humanitarian law by demolishing hundreds of Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip.
It said thousands of acres of agricultural land had also been needlessly destroyed, and called for compensation for the victims, BBC’s online service reported.
Since the Palestinian Intifada began, thousands of people in the Gaza Strip have lost their homes to Israeli bulldozers.
The Red Cross says it has been helping more than 6,000 people. According to eh UN, most were from refugee families, who have been once again forced to rely on the international community for a roof over their heads.
B'Tselem condemned what one of its officials called an illegal and immoral policy that has had a huge effect on many innocent civilians.
The group says the demolitions often take place without warning in the middle of the night, and are part of an Israeli army strategy to create security strips for soldiers and settlers.
Israel’s occupation army has responded by claiming its forces are sometimes compelled to damage property because of "decisive necessity" linked to the current conflict.
A report issued by the Palestinian Jil Press Center on February 5, 2002 confirms that the Israeli occupation army has killed 35 Palestinians and injured hundreds in January in its aggressive practices against the Palestinians.
The report said that Israeli forces have made many incursions, stormed into many Palestinian cities, reoccupied Tulkarem and trapped the Palestinian president in his headquarter in Ramallah.
It added that Israeli forces demolished 73 Palestinian homes, and made 120 Palestinian families homeless.
Israeli forces also arrested many Palestinians and continued its assassination policy killing eight Palestinian activists, four of them of Kassa’em Brigades in Nablus, the report added.
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