Blow for Middle East peace

2005-06-07 14:36

Qabatiya - Three Palestinians, including a militant leader, were killed by Israeli soldiers during operations in West Bank and Gaza Strip on Tuesday, dealing yet another blow to a fragile Middle East truce.

A witnesses said, Mraweh Khaled Kamil, a chief of Islamic Jihad's armed wing in Jenin, West Bank, died under a hail of gunfire as he hunkered down in a house in Qabatiya with other wanted militants.

Military sources said that Israeli troops surrounded the house before both sides unleashed volleys of bullets and an army bulldozer ground the building to a pulp.

Nasser Zakarneh, a 23-year-old civilian caught up in the clashes, was also killed and nine other Palestinians wounded.

A Palestinian sources said the Israeli military counted one soldier as wounded, two armed gunmen as "hit" and said four militants surrendered.

4 765 killed during Palestinian uprising

Sources said, just hours earlier, another Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli soldiers on the border between the occupied Gaza Strip and Egypt.

Tuesday's deaths raised to 4 765 the number of people killed during the more than four-year Palestinian uprising and flung into further jeopardy an informal truce in place since late January and cemented at a peace summit in February.

Egyptian mediators last month rushed to the occupied territories to bolster the ceasefire after militants launched a string of rocket attacks in Gaza Strip, prompting two retaliatory Israeli air raids in as many weeks.

Israel had repeatedly accused Palestinian leader, Mahmud Abbas, of failing to clamp down on militants, made arrests or prevent anti-Israeli attacks, although Egypt had warned Israel off making "unrealistic and impractical" demands.

In Gaza, the armed wing of Islamist group, Hamas, on Tuesday claimed another rocket attack on southern Israel, which damaged one house.

Cops fire teargas to disperse people

It said the strike was to avenge Israeli "deeds" at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holiest site.

Police on Monday stormed into the al-Aqsa compound and fired teargas to disperse hundreds of Palestinians throwing stones at a group of Jews visiting the complex, also revered by Jews as the Temple Mount.

Palestinians accused Israeli police of provoking the clashes by allowing extremist Jews to visit the compound.

Against the backdrop of unrest, British foreign secretary Jack Straw, was to pay his first visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories since Abbas was elected Palestinian leader in January.

But, his talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom were likely to be clouded by confirmation that British diplomats had held talks with Hamas after its political success in local elections.

Straw said: "Our diplomats in the occupied territories - as anywhere else in the world - see part of their job, indeed part of their job is, to have contact with elected representatives."

- AFP