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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Israeli Army Fires on Jenin Market, Kills four |
Current rating: 0 |
by Wael al-Ahmad
(No verified email address) |
21 Jun 2002
Modified: 23 Jun 2002 |
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JENIN, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli tanks fired on a fruit and vegetable market in the West Bank city of Jenin on Friday, killing three Palestinians who mistakenly thought a curfew had been lifted, witnesses said. |
Hospital officials said a six-year-old boy,and twelve-year-old boy, and a seven-year-old girl and a senior city education official aged around 50 were killed after residents emerged from their homes to stock up on supplies. Twenty-six people were also injured, they said.
The army said its action appeared to have been an error.
Hours earlier, a Palestinian gunman killed five Israelis -- three children, their mother and a security guard -- in a West Bank Jewish settlement, spurring Israel to send tanks into the nearby Palestinian-ruled city of Nablus.
In an apparent response to the attack on the settlement, a convoy of Jewish settlers drove into a Palestinian-ruled town near Nablus and opened fire, killing one man, witnesses said.
The violence, including two suicide bombings that killed 26 Israelis, has complicated efforts to end nearly 21 months of conflict and prompted President Bush ( news - web sites) to delay his announcement of a new vision for Middle East peace.
The Israeli security cabinet, grouping Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ( news - web sites) and top ministers, responded to the latest Palestinian attacks by confirming a decision taken earlier this week to retake and hold Palestinian-ruled land if attacks continue.
"This will happen all over the West Bank," an Israeli political source said.
Israeli forces trying to quell a revolt against occupation this week entered the cities of Jenin, Nablus, Qalqiliya, Bethlehem and Tulkarm. They have not pushed into Ramallah, where Palestinian President Yasser Arafat ( news - web sites) has his headquarters.
JENIN DEATHS
The army said it fired two tank shells to warn away a group of Palestinians who violated the curfew in Jenin and approached them as the troops searched for a bomb factory.
"As a result of the shooting three Palestinians were killed and 10 others were wounded. An initial inquiry indicates that the force erred in its action," an army statement said.
Residents said people had emerged from their homes to buy food after tanks pulled back from the city center and rumors spread that the army had lifted the curfew imposed when troops entered Jenin on Tuesday and sought out militants.
"The tanks left at 10 a.m. and people came out thinking the curfew was lifted. I was in the market buying vegetables when suddenly the tanks returned two hours later and started firing," an American peace activist, Rick Rowley, said by telephone.
Troops swept into Jenin after a suicide bomber killed 19 people on a Jerusalem bus. Another seven Israelis were killed in a suicide bombing at a bus stop in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
At least 1,413 Palestinians and 547 Israelis have now been killed since a Palestinian uprising against occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip ( news - web sites) began in September 2000 with talks on a Palestinian state at an impasse.
The five settlers killed in Thursday's assault on Itamar settlement were a 40-year-old woman, three of her six children, aged between five and 15, as well as the security guard.
"The terrorist climbed a fence, entered one of the houses and opened fire at its residents," an army statement said. It said earlier reports of two gunmen were wrong.
After a stand-off, soldiers stormed the house and killed the gunman, the army said. Two other children in the house, which burned down after a bullet ignited a gas canister, were wounded by the gunman. A further two children and the father were not at home at the time.
SETTLERS ATTACK
Palestinian residents said settlers attacked the town of Howara, near Nablus, on Friday afternoon. "They opened fire, shooting at and burning part of my house and a car," said Idris Audi, the father of the dead man.
In other violence, troops shot dead a Palestinian militant in the Gaza Strip who attacked them at a border crossing with grenades. Two Palestinians at the crossing were also killed.
Troops shot dead an eight-year-old Palestinian boy in Gaza in a raid after an Israeli was seriously wounded by gunmen.
And an 11-year-old Palestinian boy died in a hospital on Friday of wounds suffered in the Israeli thrust into Jenin, according to Palestinian medics.
Violence raged despite an appeal by Arafat on Thursday for an end to militant attacks on Israeli civilians. Militant group leaders rebuffed him.
Jordan's King Abdullah said in an interview published on Friday that Arafat had substantially lost control of militant groups and even worse violence lay ahead in the Middle East.
"What I can say is that over the years I always thought Arafat was capable of controlling Palestinian public sentiment and extremism," he was quoted as telling the Belgian weekly Le Vif/L'Express. "I think that is no longer the case today."
Arafat was quoted by an Israeli interviewer as saying he now accepted a peace plan put forward 18 months ago by then-U.S. President Bill Clinton. Acceptance of the proposal -- made by Clinton a month before leaving office -- could indicate a softening of Arafat's position.
The plan does not include a right of return of Palestinian refugees to their old homes in Israel, a demand that has long been central to his negotiating stance.
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Comments
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How come |
by Clueless
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
21 Jun 2002
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... When we hear these statistics on how many Israelis and Palestinians have died, we never hear how many of the dead were combatants, i.e., with weapons, like in other conflicts?
I also don't understand how Israel and America can do all they can to marginalize Arafat and disrupt his infrastructure, then insist he be able to corral his people...? If we want Palestinians to respect their own homeland authority, I just don't get what attacking it is supposed to accomplish.
Any takers? |
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I hear ya |
by Mink
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
22 Jun 2002
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It would indeed be instructive to hear not only who was armed, but what they were armed WITH.
As for the PA... I too don't see how the Israeli government can both marginalize it on the one hand, while holding Arafat responsible for all of the Palestinian violence on the other. If the PA is ineffectual and irrelevant, then expecting it to magically halt violent actions which have grown far beyond its influence is rather silly.
Furthermore, it would be nice to see some articles making real distictions between the various "Palestinian extremist groups" - they don't all want the same thing, any more than all of the Israeli military (never mind the full body of citizens) wants the same thing. Some want peace and negotiation, some don't, and so punishing one group (by calling off peace talks) necessarily rewards another. It seems to me that Israel is in a situation of "well, yeah, okay, we've painted ourselves into a corner, but gee, we can't change course NOW, because if we do, some people will think they've caused us to change course, and that would mean they've won something, and heavens, we can't have THAT, so we must continue on, knowing it's futile, while the space we have to stand on only shrinks..." In fact, what scares me these days is that the US is near to embarking on that same path - I think at least SOME of the People Up There At The Controls realize our foreign policy has sparked a lot of the dangers and resentment we face, but are so afraid that any movement in our MO would show weakness, and somehow "let the terrorists win" that they simply refuse to change. "Cutting off one's nose to spite one's face" is the phrase that comes to mind.
As for getting rid of Arafat? I suppose, but ONLY if they get rid of Sharon at the same time. It's personal with those guys, and it has been since at least 1982. Just icing on the cake... |
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it's tricky |
by jib
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
22 Jun 2002
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Imagine if Leonard Peltier's American Indian Movement decided to blow up the local Zany Brainy for all of the bad shit that's happened to them. The anger is justified, but is the response? There's the rub. These people have been trying to off each other for the last 3000 years - far be it from me to dictate how they should go about doing it. |
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jib you are full of shit |
by hans
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
23 Jun 2002
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the people that have been living in palestine area including arab, jew, and christian semites had been living in the area in peace for hundreds of years before the un-democratic phony proped up fascist israeli goverment was installed 55 years ago basicly israel is based on phony reliegous fanastisisum just like the talabain |
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