Sharon vows harsh Gaza reply

2005-07-24 21:34

Jerusalem - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Sunday threatened a harsh military response to Palestinian violence during and after Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip following the murder of two Jerusalem grandparents.

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas slammed the killings as a violation of an informal seven-month-old truce, repeatedly rocked by continued violence, and vowed that the Palestinian Authority would do everything to prevent attacks.

Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinian militants deemed responsible for the couple's death amid sky-high tensions in the countdown to Israel's historic pullout of troops and settlers from Gaza next month.

The violence also cast a shadow over a three-day visit to the Middle East by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who spoke of progress between the two sides over coordinating the withdrawal.

Position clear

Sharon said Israel would "not countenance" such violence and that he had made his position clear during talks with Rice at the weekend.

"I made it clear to her the additional instructions that have been given to the security establishment on this issue are very clear and that the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) will respond sharply against terrorist activity," he told a cabinet meeting.

"Our responses will be with very sharp means whether terrorism is perpetrated during the evacuation or afterwards," he said.

Last week, Israeli authorities threatened a wide-scale ground offensive into the Gaza Strip unless the Palestinian Authority brought an end to militant rocket attacks.

The Israeli husband and wife, grandparents in their 50s, were shot dead when Palestinian gunmen raked their car on Saturday as they set out for home after spending the sabbath with relatives in one of the settlements to be dismantled.

Serious condition

Another five Israelis, including one soldier in a serious condition, were wounded in the attack near the main border crossing between Gaza and Israel.

The ambush was claimed jointly by the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is loosely affiliated with Abbas's ruling Fatah party, and the Popular Resistance Committee.

After meeting Rice on Saturday, Palestinian civil affairs minister Mohammed Dahlan said the Palestinian Authority had given its assurance that the pullout would not take place under militant fire.

But Palestinians twice opened fire on Israeli soldiers guarding a checkpoint between Khan Yunis and Neve Dekalim, the largest Jewish settlement in Gaza, in the early afternoon, an army spokesperson said.

- AFP