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Bomb Explodes in Path of Israeli Military Convoy
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| CIA
director, George Tenet
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OCCUPIED JERUSALEM,
May 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) -
A bomb exploded in the path of an Israeli convoy in the Gaza
Strip early Tuesday, May 21, but caused no injuries or damage, the
Israeli occupation army said.
The
incident occurred on a road between the Jewish settlement of Netzarim
and the Karni border crossing point between Gaza and Israeli
territory, it said in a statement, Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The
attack was jointly claimed by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed
offshoot of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, and
the armed wing of the left-wing Democratic Front for the Liberation of
Palestine (DFLP).
"Our
men carried out this operation by setting off an explosive charge
around 6:00 am (O300 GMT) against a military convoy on the
Netzarim-Karni road and then opening fire with automatic weapons,
wounding several Israeli soldiers," they said in a statement
faxed to AFP in Gaza City.
The
Israeli army also said that two mortar bombs were fired at another
Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip overnight and accused Palestinians
of launching grenades against an army post near Rafah, on the border
between the southern Gaza Strip and Egypt. No injuries were reported.
The
Israeli army abducted two Palestinians overnight, one each in the
areas of Bethlehem and Jenin in the West Bank.
Meanwhile,
Israeli tanks rolled into the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem for
the second time Monday, May 20, Palestinian witnesses said.
Some
fifteen tanks, backed by a helicopter gunship staged a brief incursion
and fired shells, the witnesses said, reporting injuries.
The
Israeli army confirmed the operation and said its troops had withdrawn
after carrying out searches.
In
an earlier raid, the army abducted a young Palestinian woman, accusing
her of preparing a suicide bombing, reported AFP.
In
another development, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director
George Tenet will meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders
"relatively soon" to search for ways to end violence in the
region, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said late Monday.
"There's
no fixed date yet," Rice told reporters. "But I think he'll
either go to the region or he'll meet them someplace relatively
soon."
She
said Tenet was "committed to pulling together the parties, site
to be determined, when it looks like he can make progress on the
restructuring of the Palestinian security forces."
Last
year, the CIA director proposed a plan containing a series of security
measures designed to help Israel and the Palestinians to achieve a
viable cease-fire.
The
plan was accepted by both sides but never implemented.
U.S. President George W. Bush announced on May 7
his decision to send Tenet back to the Middle East to help restructure
the Palestinian Authorities security forces.
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