Israel Expels
Activists’ Kin, Hamas, Jihad Vow Continued Resistance
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The Palestinian kin’s expulsion is "collective punishment contrary to international law and natural rights," said an Israeli rights group
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OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, August 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Israeli
occupation army prepared Tuesday, August 13, to expel to Gaza three
brothers of Palestinians suspected of involvement in resistance
activities against Israel, in a move that torpedoed Palestinian
leadership efforts to broker a ceasefire by resistance groups.
An
Israeli military court gave its approval late Monday, August 12, to
the widely criticized policy of deporting the kin of wanted activists.
The
three, whose brothers are suspected of involvement in a July ambush of
a Jewish settler bus, have until 2:00 pm (1100 GMT) Tuesday to make a
final appeal against their expulsion from the West Bank, said Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
The
Center for the Defense of the Individual, an Israeli rights group that
provided the trio's legal counsel, said it would make the required
appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court.
The
Palestinian kin’s expulsion from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip
would constitute "collective punishment contrary to international
law and natural rights," said the rights group.
In
a swift answer to the Israeli decision, the Islamic resistance
movement Hamas vowed Tuesday to pursue its campaign against the
Israeli occupation by all possible means, including suicide bombings,
said AFP.
Islamic
Jihad echoed Hamas' refusal to sign up to a Palestinian Authority call
for an end to attacks against Israeli occupation, a Gaza leader of the
Palestinian resistance group said.
"Islamic
Jihad will continue its resistance to the occupation, even if we reach
an agreement on the document" under discussion, said top Jihad
leader Mohammed al-Hindi.
Palestinian
resistance groups, which engaged Monday in talks on a possible halt to
attacks inside Israel, have threatened to attack the families of
Israeli politicians if the deportations go ahead, said AFP.
Palestinian
officials had said that all factions, including the three main
resistance groups, were mulling an agreement to freeze retaliatory
attacks inside Israel and instead limit their operations to the
occupied territories, said AFP.
A
senior Fatah official told AFP that after talks late Sunday, August
11, "all Fatah groups" had agreed to the proposed partial
truce.
The
military court in the West Bank settlement of Beit El made its
decision in the case of Intissar Adjuri, 34, from the Askar refugee
camp near Nablus, public television reported.
But
the ruling also applies to her brother Kifah, 28, and to Abdel-Nasser
Assidi, 34, from the village of Tel, the television added.
They
are accused of having prior knowledge of the attacks and of having
aided their siblings.
If
their appeal to the Supreme Court fails, the trio are liable to
deportation to the Gaza Strip the same day for a period of two years,
their Israeli defense team said.
The
court was likely to delay the deportations until the cases had been
heard, the Israeli daily newspaper, Ha’aretz, reported.
The
United States has voiced its disapproval of the controversial move,
while Palestinians have called it a "war crime" in breach of
international law.
U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan has said he is "deeply
concerned" by the proposed Israeli policy and urged it to respect
the fourth Geneva Convention.
Meanwhile,
Israeli forces destroyed the homes of two more martyr bombers in their
bid to quell such resistance acts which their military re-occupation
of the West Bank has failed to stem.
"These
demolitions send a message to the suicide bombers and their commanders
that they will pay a price in one way or another," the army said,
after Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer said the demolitions were
starting to take effect.
Despite
the friction generated by such controversial steps, Israeli public
radio said that Foreign Minister Shimon Peres was to resume talks
Wednesday, August 14, with a Palestinian delegation headed by
chief negotiated Saeb Erakat.
Meanwhile,
a member of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement and
an Islamic activist were killed and eight others wounded in a clash
Tuesday morning at a refugee camp in southern Lebanon, Palestinian
sources said.
Using
rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles, gunmen staged a surprise
raid on the Fatah headquarters at the main entrance of the Ain
al-Helweh camp on the outskirts of the southern port city of Sidon,
the sources told AFP.
The
Fatah activists at the headquarters and others at the nearby camp
entrance checkpoint returned fire and the shootout lasted for about 10
minutes.
One
Fatah member was killed and six others were wounded and taken to
hospital, the sources said.
The
clash also left one Islamic activist, Lebanese Ahmad Abou Tabet,
killed and two others wounded, they added.
Fatah
reinforcement forces were sent to the northern entrance of the camp
where clashes broke out again briefly, the sources said.
Fatah's
representative in the Sidon area, Khaled Aref, told AFP the gunmen
were from the Dinniyeh Group and called on them to surrender or face
the likelihood of attack.
"We
are engaged in negotiations with all factions at the camp, including
Palestinian Islamic groups, to ask for an immediate surrender because
we do not want to use force," he said.
In
the past two weeks, there have been four bomb attacks against Fatah
targets in Lebanon, including one that damaged the home of Khaled
al-Shayeb, the group's chief for the Bekaa Valley.
About
376,000 Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon, most of them at the
country's 12 squalid refugee camps that were set up after Israel's
creation in 1948.
Lebanese
authorities have not entered the Palestinian refugee camps since 1969,
but maintain a tight security presence around them.
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