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Ben-Eliezer Proud of Assassinating Taher, Hamas to Retaliate
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| Israeli
army dubs assassination of Palestinians ‘great
achievement’.
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GAZA
CITY, July 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Two Palestinians were
injured, one seriously, by Israeli gunfire overnight Sunday, June 30,
2002, in the south of the Gaza Strip, as the Israeli army killed the
Islamic resistance movement Hamas's military leader for the northern
West Bank.
The
two Palestinians were hit when Israeli tanks opened fire on a refugee
camp near the border between
Egypt
and the Gaza Strip, according to medical resources.
Also overnight Sunday, some 30 tanks, accompanied by bulldozers,
stormed Bet Rima near Ramallah in the West Bank while opening heavy
fire, witnesses told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Meanwhile,
Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said Monday, July 1,
that the assassination of Hamas leader, Muhannad Taher, who headed
Israel's list of most-wanted Palestinian resistance fighters in the
West Bank, was Israel's most important military operation of the last
two months. He called the assassination “
Israel
’s most significant achievement”, according to Israeli daily
newspaper, Ha’aretz.
Hamas, for its part, vowed to avenge the death of Taher, 26, allegedly
one of the group’s top-bombmakers until he and one of his
lieutenants were killed in a raid by elite Israeli units in Nablus
Sunday night.
"The assassination will increase Hamas's determination to
continue Jihad and resistance," said Ismail Haniyah, a Hamas
official in the Gaza Strip. "Hamas will never forget the blood of
its martyrs."
Ben-Eliezer expressed Monday "congratulations and very great
pride over what Israeli soldiers did yesterday - I am speaking of
Muhannad Taher, head of the military infrastructure of Hamas. This is
the most important operation of the last two months and the most
significant achievement. We are speaking of a… planner, an
'engineer'."
Asked how many more "engineers" were still at work,
Ben-Eliezer told Army Radio: "There's no lack of them," but
added that Taher was in a class by himself.
Another Hamas military wing activist was killed in the raid, and
another was injured and arrested.
There were differing accounts regarding the question of whether
Taher's death was a result of an assassination operation by the
occupation army.
Ha’aretz quoted Israeli security sources as saying that the
objective of the military operation was to liquidate Taher and that no
attempt was made to arrest him.
However,
Israeli officers said Taher was killed after fierce resistance,
claiming that prior to the shooting, they ordered him to surrender.
"Had
he come out with his hands raised, he would not have been hurt,"
they said.
Meanwhile,
the International Solidarity Movement reported Monday that more than
six Palestinian villages around the
West Bank
city of
Nablus
have been cut off completely by the Israeli occupation forces.
Tanks,
armored personnel carriers and bulldozers created barriers four to
five feet in width from dirt and concrete. At many of these barriers,
the soldiers created ad hoc checkpoints where they harass, humiliate
and prevent the movement of the local Palestinian population. Some
villages have been put under curfew, equivalent to house arrest, and
all are suffering from the lack of commerce and food deliveries.
Sunday
morning, the main road exiting from Balata Refugee Camp in
Nablus
has been bulldozed, but locals have resisted and filled in a small
path for cars to pass. Due to the deep cuts of the bulldozers, a
sewage line was severed. Raw sewage is running down the street almost
reaching nearby Askar Refugee Camp. Curfew in
Nablus
prevented any substantive work from being done to fix this awful and
risky situation, official Palestinian News Agency (WAFA) reported.
In
the afternoon, internationals witnessed the closure of Boreen, a small
Palestinian village. Susan Barclay, Eric and Rae Levine were on
ambulance duty with the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief
Committees. From the ambulance, they watched and photographed Israeli
bulldozers, protected by an armed personnel carrier, dig a trench
across the only road linking Boreen with the rest of the world. The
dirt has been piled high and the internationals have been instructed
by the occupation forces that all of the villages are inaccessible,
but are not closed military zones.
Later,
still in the ambulance, they met a group of Palestinian students who
told the internationals that they had been picked up by soldiers. The
men were separated out, blindfolded, tied and taken to an unknown
detention area.
They
were later released, but some without their identity cards, making it
impossible for them to go home.
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| Ben
Eliezer called the assassination of Taher (down R) an
“achievement”.
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The
village
of
Beit Forik
has a population of 12,000 and Beit Dajan has 3,500. Only one road
leads to these two villages and that road is flanked on each side by
Israeli colonial settlements. Palestinians say that they cannot walk
this road because of the heavy military presence and the fear of being
shot by settlers.
There
is also a water shortage in the villages and normally water is
purchased and trucked in. Currently, there are two water trucks
sitting at an Israeli military checkpoint and are denied entry.
Internationals have investigated this situation and report that the
checkpoint consists of six cement blocks and five pillars of concrete
that form a small occupation forces camp with tanks and armed
personnel carriers, WAFA reported.
The
villages have received no water and are desperate for the deliveries.
On
the political front, meanwhile,
Jordan
's King Abdullah II called Monday on the
United States
to map out further details of its new
Middle East
strategy, saying there could be no success for the region's peace
process without
Washington
's full involvement, AFP reported.
The Jordanian monarch, in
Tokyo
for a three-day visit, held talks with Japanese Foreign Minister
Yoriko Kawaguchi at a
Tokyo
hotel, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.
"King Abdullah told our Minister that there can be no success in
the
Middle East
process without full involvement by the
United States
," the official said.
Abdullah underscored his country's support for last week's speech by
U.S. President George W. Bush outlining a new
Middle East
strategy, including future elections.
Abdullah told
Kawaguchi
that he was waiting for further details of the Bush speech,
particularly regarding the final goal of the strategy and its
timeframe, the official said.
During the meeting, the Jordanian king called on
Japan
to continue to play a political role in the
Middle East
process.
"King Abdullah told our Minister that not only Palestinians but
other countries in the region appreciate
Japan
's support," the official said.
"The king told her that he expected
Japan
would play a political role" in the
Middle East
peace process, the official said.
According to the official
Kawaguchi
replied: "
Japan
needs to be engaged in the issue politically in order to make our
support effective."
Bush told the Palestinians Monday last week they should replace their
President Yasser Arafat and other leaders "compromised by
terrorism" in future elections as a condition for
U.S.
support for the creation of a Palestinian state.
However,
the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)
on Sunday "totally" rejected any attack on the
"legitimacy" of Arafat.
"The PLO-EC totally rejects all attempts to undermine the
legitimacy of elected Palestinian institutions, with President Yasser
Arafat at their head," the committee said in a statement
published by the official WAFA agency.
"These attempts are aimed at averting attention away from the
crimes committed by the Israeli occupiers," the statement said.
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