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Arafat calls for help
02/10/2004 21:54 - (SA)
West Bank - The Palestinian cabinet declared a state of emergency in the Palestinian territories with leader Yasser Arafat appealing for international help against a massive Israeli incursion that killed a further 11 Palestinians on Saturday.
Seven were killed in the early hours of Saturday while another died of his wounds, with two subsequent Israeli air strikes killing one and then two Palestinians.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat called on the world to end the "criminal and racist" Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip, which the Jewish state says is to root out militants firing improvised rockets into Israeli territory.
But militants of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas said on Saturday they would continue to fire the rockets and would target the port city of Ashkelon.
"The Israeli military operation has failed," said a leader of Hamas's military wing, the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, in a press conference at the Jabaliya refugee camp, a focal point in the fighting, adding: "We will continue to fire Qassam rockets."
However, another Hamas leader later said that his group was prepared to stop firing rockets if Israeli forces ended their campaign in the northern Gaza Strip.
"Our sons will stop the firing of Qassam rockets as a means of defence if the Israeli occupier ceases its aggressive incursion and its occupation in the north of the Gaza Strip," said Ismail Haniyeh.
Denounced world's silence
Arafat, speaking to journalists outside his headquarters after the emergency cabinet session, said: "I call on the entire world to act immediately and rapidly to stop the criminal and racist" attack launched by the Israeli army.
At the same time, he denied that any of the rockets fired at Israel had caused any casualties, contradicting Israeli reports that two children had been killed in the southern Israeli town of Sderot on Wednesday.
"These rockets the Israelis are talking about have not killed anyone ... and only make noise," he said.
A Palestinian cabinet statement called for international intervention, humanitarian help for the people of Gaza and denounced what it called "world silence in the face of the magnitude of crimes committed".
Israeli troops have killed 56 Palestinians since Tuesday night when more than 100 Israeli tanks, backed by aircraft, moved into the northern Gaza Strip in the operation called "Days of Penitence".
Shops closed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Saturday in a widely followed strike to protest at the deaths of the Palestinians.
The Arab League announced that it will hold an emergency session on Sunday to discuss the violence in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian representative said.
Mohammed Sobeih said the permanent delegates to the league would meet at the request of the Palestinians to "discuss the savage and continuing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in all cities, villages and refugee camps, notably in the Gaza Strip".
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