Israeli attack kills 4

2004-05-04 17:27

Gaza City - An Israeli attack helicopter fired a missile early on Tuesday at a group of armed Palestinians in the Khan Younis refugee camp, killing two and wounding 22, residents and doctors said.

The violence came after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pledged to come up with a new plan to replace "unilateral disengagement" from Gaza, voted down by his own party.

Witnesses said the gunmen fired two missiles at Israeli tanks in the camp before the helicopter struck.

The attack came during an Israeli military operation in two parts of the camp. Tanks and bulldozers tore down four buildings across from a Jewish settlement, witnesses said.

Israeli forces withdrew from the area early on Tuesday, the army said.

The Israeli operation came a day after Palestinian gunmen opened fire on an Israeli vehicle on a nearby road, killing a pregnant settler and her four young daughters.

Doctors at Khan Younis hospital said five of the wounded were in critical condition. Some civilians were among the wounded, they said.

Also early Tuesday, Israeli troops took up positions around Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's office building in the West Bank city of Ramallah, witnesses said.

They said Israeli military vehicles surrounded the complex and soldiers took over buildings across from the compound. There were no reports of gunfire.

Israeli military officials said soldiers were arresting suspects, but the operation was not linked to Arafat's office. The soldiers were withdrawn early on Tuesday, the army said.

There will be another plan

Though Sharon's Likud Party soundly defeated his plan to pull out of Gaza in a referendum, Sharon was adamant on Monday. "I want to say in the clearest fashion there will be another plan," Sharon told a meeting of Likud lawmakers, according to a participant.

Israeli officials suggested the plan - which had won US backing and was popular with Israelis - would be slightly scaled down, and the new version would not be put to a Likud vote.

Sharon had proposed his "disengagement plan" as the best way to obtain security for Israel in the absence of peace moves and to defuse international pressure for greater concessions.

Residents of the Gaza settlement of Neve Dekalim, who had energetically campaigned against the plan, symbolically declared victory on Monday by laying the cornerstone for a new neighbourhood. "It says we're here to stay," said Esther Lilienthal, 67.

Sharon said he would present his new plan to parliament and to the Cabinet, but not to another party referendum.

"The Likud members said 'no' to a specific plan, not to all plans," Cabinet minister Tzipi Livni said.

Sharon's original plan envisioned an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, home to 7 500 settlers in 21 settlements, and the evacuation of four small settlements in the West Bank by the end of 2005.

The prime minister's top aide, Dov Weisglass, spoke on Monday with Condoleezza Rice, US President George W Bush's national security adviser, to assure her that Sharon remained committed to carrying out the plan with only minor changes, government sources said.

"He is going to carry on. He is not going to accept the status quo," Vice Premier Ehud Olmert said.

Last month Bush tried to boost Sharon's chances in the referendum, endorsing the plan and giving him unprecedented assurances that in a final peace deal, Israel would not have to withdraw from all of the West Bank.

- AP