Adam
08-05-02, 11:55 PM
Israel tightens grip on cities
By Justin Huggler & Nazir Majally
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 6 August — Israel tightened its grip yesterday on occupied Palestinian cities and promised “surprises” in the fight against Palestinian militants who have launched their bloodiest onslaught in weeks, leaving 18 people dead in just 24 hours. Its troops also seized a Hamas leader in the West Bank suspected of organizing a bombing which killed nine Israelis on Sunday.
Israeli attack helicopters fired missiles on buildings housing metal factories in the heart of Gaza City last night, wounding five Palestinians according to hospital sources. Two loud explosions were heard as the aircraft fired several salvoes on the city and destroyed the factories. Palestinian security sources said five missiles were fired.
One of the targets was a building in the Zeitoun metal-working district, whose workshops the Israeli Army regularly charges are used by Palestinian militants for the manufacture of makeshift rockets and other weapons.
It was the first Israeli airstrike against a Palestinian target since a deadly July 22 missile attack in which a Palestinian militant leader, his bodyguard and 13 civilians were killed, drawing widespread international condemnation. Israel, struggling to control the killing with such controversial new measures as banishing militants’ kin to Gaza and destroying their homes, responded by slapping a ban on drivers in five West Bank towns it controls.
Israel banned Palestinians from traveling in most of the West Bank and used tanks to seal off part of the Gaza Strip yesterday. “We are in a situation of total closure in the northern West Bank. No one goes in or out,” Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told Israel radio.
The affected West bank towns are Nablus, Tulkarm, Qalqilya, Ramallah and Jenin. Until now, Palestinians in these areas were only able to drive when Israel lifted its curfews. The army also announced it had encircled the town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt. Israel says Rafah is a key hub for Palestinians smuggling weapons from Egypt via tunnels snaking under the Israeli-controlled border. The Israeli Army arrested Mazen Fukha, the 24-year-old regional leader of the Islamic group Hamas in the northern West Bank. Israeli soldiers also fired at a group of Palestinians breaking curfew in the West Bank of city of Nablus, killing a 14-year-old youth, Palestinian witnesses said.
In an indication there would be no letup in a surge of Palestinian bombings, a car blew up outside the northern Israeli Arab town of Umm El-Fahm, killing a passenger who police suspect was a bomber on his way to carry out an attack. Police said they believed explosives carried by the bomber detonated prematurely before he could reach an Israeli city. The driver of the vehicle, identified by Israeli media reports as an Israeli Arab, was wounded.
Following Sunday’s attacks, Israel suspended talks due this week with Palestinians on security and easing hardships. But Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres went ahead with a meeting in Egypt yesterday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who pressed demands for a quick Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian-ruled areas.
Speaking to Israeli journalists after a meeting with Peres, Mubarak said Israel could break the cycle of distrust and the violence between the two peoples and their leaders.
In New York,, the UN General Assembly special session yesterday to debate a UN report on events during the Israeli incursion into the West Bank refugee camp at Jenin illustrated the isolation of Israel and the United States.
A draft resolution to condemn the Jewish state for the “atrocities” against citizens committed by Israeli troops in Jenin and other Palestinian cities as a “grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention” was likely to be adopted without difficulty later yesterday. But the United States qualified the resolution as a “hypocrisy,” questioning how it was possible not to condemn “Palestinian terrorism.” (The Independent)
Source. (http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=17514)
By Justin Huggler & Nazir Majally
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 6 August — Israel tightened its grip yesterday on occupied Palestinian cities and promised “surprises” in the fight against Palestinian militants who have launched their bloodiest onslaught in weeks, leaving 18 people dead in just 24 hours. Its troops also seized a Hamas leader in the West Bank suspected of organizing a bombing which killed nine Israelis on Sunday.
Israeli attack helicopters fired missiles on buildings housing metal factories in the heart of Gaza City last night, wounding five Palestinians according to hospital sources. Two loud explosions were heard as the aircraft fired several salvoes on the city and destroyed the factories. Palestinian security sources said five missiles were fired.
One of the targets was a building in the Zeitoun metal-working district, whose workshops the Israeli Army regularly charges are used by Palestinian militants for the manufacture of makeshift rockets and other weapons.
It was the first Israeli airstrike against a Palestinian target since a deadly July 22 missile attack in which a Palestinian militant leader, his bodyguard and 13 civilians were killed, drawing widespread international condemnation. Israel, struggling to control the killing with such controversial new measures as banishing militants’ kin to Gaza and destroying their homes, responded by slapping a ban on drivers in five West Bank towns it controls.
Israel banned Palestinians from traveling in most of the West Bank and used tanks to seal off part of the Gaza Strip yesterday. “We are in a situation of total closure in the northern West Bank. No one goes in or out,” Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told Israel radio.
The affected West bank towns are Nablus, Tulkarm, Qalqilya, Ramallah and Jenin. Until now, Palestinians in these areas were only able to drive when Israel lifted its curfews. The army also announced it had encircled the town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt. Israel says Rafah is a key hub for Palestinians smuggling weapons from Egypt via tunnels snaking under the Israeli-controlled border. The Israeli Army arrested Mazen Fukha, the 24-year-old regional leader of the Islamic group Hamas in the northern West Bank. Israeli soldiers also fired at a group of Palestinians breaking curfew in the West Bank of city of Nablus, killing a 14-year-old youth, Palestinian witnesses said.
In an indication there would be no letup in a surge of Palestinian bombings, a car blew up outside the northern Israeli Arab town of Umm El-Fahm, killing a passenger who police suspect was a bomber on his way to carry out an attack. Police said they believed explosives carried by the bomber detonated prematurely before he could reach an Israeli city. The driver of the vehicle, identified by Israeli media reports as an Israeli Arab, was wounded.
Following Sunday’s attacks, Israel suspended talks due this week with Palestinians on security and easing hardships. But Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres went ahead with a meeting in Egypt yesterday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who pressed demands for a quick Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian-ruled areas.
Speaking to Israeli journalists after a meeting with Peres, Mubarak said Israel could break the cycle of distrust and the violence between the two peoples and their leaders.
In New York,, the UN General Assembly special session yesterday to debate a UN report on events during the Israeli incursion into the West Bank refugee camp at Jenin illustrated the isolation of Israel and the United States.
A draft resolution to condemn the Jewish state for the “atrocities” against citizens committed by Israeli troops in Jenin and other Palestinian cities as a “grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention” was likely to be adopted without difficulty later yesterday. But the United States qualified the resolution as a “hypocrisy,” questioning how it was possible not to condemn “Palestinian terrorism.” (The Independent)
Source. (http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=17514)