AL-KHALIL,
West Bank, November 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon said Sunday, November 17, that Israel must enlarge
the zone it administers in the divided West Bank city of al-Khalil
(Hebron) following an attack which killed 12 Israeli soldiers and
settlers, after which Israel reoccupied the city.
A
day after Israeli forces swarmed back into the Palestinian-administered
areas of the flashpoint city which it quit just weeks ago, Jewish
settlers started establishing an outpost between the settlement of
Kiryat Arba and the city itself, a settler leader said, reported Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
Sharon
said during a tour of the flashpoint city that the army must ensure
territorial continuity between Kiryat Arba on the eastern edge of
al-Khalil and Jewish enclaves in the city center around the disputed
shrine of the Tomb of the Patriarchs.
"The
opportunity that now presents itself in the wake of the attack Friday
evening in the city, in which 12 Israelis were killed, must be exploited
to establish new facts on the ground that will ensure territorial
continuity between the settlement of Kiryat Arba and the Jewish section
of Hebron (al-Khalil), including the Tomb of the Patriarchs,"
Sharon was quoted by Ha'aretz as saying.
At
the same time, al-Khalil's settler leader, Zvi Katsover, said dozens of
youths had already moved in to set up a wildcat outpost - the basis for
a future settlement - between the two.
"We
have created a new settlement outpost, and it would have been a historic
sin not to have made use of this occasion," said Katsover,
referring to the Islamic Jihad attack Friday night which killed 12
Israelis, including three settlers.
For
their part, Palestinian officials called the plans, which could see
scores of Palestinian homes emptied or destroyed, a new step in Israel's
plans to step up its settlement activities, considered illegal by the
international community.
Al-Khalil's
Palestinian mayor, Mustafa al-Natsheh, said the announcement was
"part of an old Israeli plan which was immediately implemented
after the 1967 war" with its Arab neighbors, when the Jewish state
seized the West Bank from Jordan.
"In
1968 they established control of Kiryat Arba, then step by step they
moved into the Old City" where the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a shrine
sacred to both Jews and Muslims, is located.
"They
use every incident to increase the implementation of their plan,"
Natsheh told AFP.
"Their
aim is to force the Palestinians out and bring in more Jews," he
said, noting that one of the Old City's main streets had been closed
since a Jewish extremist killed 29 Muslim worshippers in the Tomb in
1994, while most of the Old City has been under curfew since the start
of the Intifada two years ago.
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Palestinian children look at Israeli soldiers during curfew time in
al-Khalil
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He
said he feared many historical buildings could be evacuated or destroyed
if Sharon links Kiryat Arba to the Jewish enclave, around 1.5 kilometers
(one mile) away.
He
added, however, that he had no details on Sharon's apparent plans,
announced before the Israeli hardliner met with his cabinet.
A
top aide to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said Sharon's plans
constituted "a new aggression and escalation against our
people," as well as against efforts by the international community
to wind down the two-year conflict.
"The
Israeli government is not serious about seeking a political
solution," Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.
Just
hours after the Friday gun fight, Israeli armored vehicles piled back
into Palestinian-administered zones of the city of more than 120,000
people.
Israel
has always assured the administration of Palestinian neighborhoods hard
by the heavily guarded Jewish enclaves in the city center where some 600
hard line and heavy-armed Jewish settlers live.
However,
after two years of bitter conflict with the Palestinians, Israel's
right-wing government says the 1993 accords which laid down that
division are dead.
Sharon
said Friday, September 6, 2002, that for Israel, the 1993 Oslo peace
accords with the Palestinians no longer exist
