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(04/21/08 3:59am)
Israel killed seven Hamas militants in a series of airstrikes after the group detonated two jeeps packed with hundreds of kilograms of explosives at an Israeli crossing on the Gaza border.\nTwo of the militants were killed early Sunday.\nIsraeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak visited the area of Saturday’s twin suicide attacks, which wounded 13 soldiers, and warned Hamas would “bear \nthe consequences.”\nHowever, an immediate Israeli offensive appears unlikely – Israelis are currently marking the Jewish Passover holiday and in May will celebrate their country’s 60th birthday.\nThe Islamic militant Hamas said Saturday’s attack on the Kerem Shalom crossing was part of a campaign to break the nearly yearlong blockade of the Gaza. Israel and Egypt virtually sealed Gaza after Hamas seized control of the territory by force.\nIn Damascus, former President Jimmy Carter met with senior Hamas leaders on Friday and Saturday, defying U.S. and Israeli warnings that doing so would grant the group legitimacy. Hamas officials said Gaza’s closure and a possible Israel-Hamas prisoner swap were discussed. They said the group did not respond to Carter’s request that it halt rocket fire on Israeli border towns or that it agree to talk to Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishak about a prisoner exchange.\nFollowing the crossing attack, Israel targeted Hamas militants in a series of missile strikes, killing seven. Of those, five were killed Saturday and two early Sunday. Four Hamas gunmen were wounded in Sunday’s strikes in northern Gaza and east of Gaza City, medics said.\nA senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, warned the crossings would be targeted again. Saturday’s attacks “are the beginning of the explosions that Hamas has warned of,” he said. “If the parties don’t intervene quickly to save Gaza and break the siege, what is coming will be greater.”\nOn Saturday morning, Hamas militants drove an armored personnel carrier and two jeeps made to look like Israeli army vehicles toward the Kerem Shalom crossing under the cover of morning fog as Hamas pounded the border area with heavy mortar fire, said Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant, the top army commander in the area.\nThe armored personnel carrier broke through the perimeter fence, enabling the two jeeps to enter the crossing. One jeep was detonated near an army watchtower and the second near a patrol. Thirteen soldiers were wounded in the second blast, including eight who were hospitalized. Four Hamas attackers were killed, the army said.\nGalant said Hamas apparently tried to cause a large number of casualties and to kidnap soldiers.\n“This is an attack the likes of which we have not seen since disengagement,” Galant said, referring to Israel’s pullout from Gaza in September 2005.\nIsraeli government spokesman Mark Regev said Hamas is showing disregard for the welfare of Gaza’s residents by attacking the crossings.
(03/04/08 4:46am)
JEBALIYA, Gaza Strip – Israeli aircraft pummeled targets in Gaza for the sixth straight day Monday and militants fired rockets at a major Israeli city. But the fighting showed signs of slowing, with the army pulling ground troops out of northern Gaza.\nThe departing soldiers left behind scenes of devastation in this northern Gaza town: roads plowed up, cars crushed by tanks and electric poles toppled. Hamas militants declared victory and some 20,000 supporters staged a large celebration in Gaza City.\nWhile remaining defiant in public, Hamas leaders signaled a readiness for a truce.\nBut Israeli officials said the troop pullback was only temporary and that the overall offensive was continuing.\n“We are acting and we will continue to act in a way that is painful and effective, that will bring maximum results in terms of halting terror,” Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told members of his Kadima party.\nAt the same time, he said Israel must press forward with peace talks with moderate Palestinians. The Palestinians suspended the talks on Sunday.\n“We want to carry on with negotiations because the alternative is Hamas rule in the West Bank as well,” he said. “Anyone who sees what is going on in Gaza can well imagine how much worse it would be for Israel if there were to be Hamas rule in the West Bank.”\nThe Gaza fighting has killed some 117 Palestinians since last Wednesday, according to Palestinian medical officials and militant groups. Three Israelis have also been killed.\nThe fighting has brought home the huge challenges facing the latest U.S.-sponsored peace push as long as Israel and Hamas are locked in a seemingly endless spiral of violence.\nSecretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to visit the region starting Tuesday to promote peace talks. But with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas suspending those talks to protest the Gaza bloodshed, it wasn’t clear what Rice would be able to accomplish.\nThe Palestinians have two rival governments: Abbas’ moderate administration in the West Bank and the Islamic militant Hamas regime in Gaza.\nHamas strongman Mahmoud Zahar told reporters his group has been in touch with an unidentified third party to discuss a cease-fire that would include the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and an end to an Israeli blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza.\nIsrael is seeking the release of a soldier captured by Hamas-linked militants in June 2006 as part of a deal. He stressed, however, that Hamas would continue to train and develop weapons even under a truce.\nIsraeli leaders have been reluctant to seek a cease-fire, claiming Hamas would use any lull to rearm. But recent opinion polls show roughly two-thirds of the Israeli public supports truce talks, and a growing number of Israeli leaders have said the government should consider the idea.\nIsrael’s education minister, Yuli Tamir, said the government should try to talk to Hamas to work out a cease fire.\n“Given the terrible situation, and given the fact that we don’t have a perfect option that can guarantee quiet in the south, we should try such a move,” she told Army Radio.
(03/03/08 5:10am)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israel sent missiles slamming into the office of Gaza’s Hamas prime minister Sunday, pressing on with an offensive that has killed nearly 70 Palestinians in two days. The moderate Palestinian president suspended peace talks with Israel.\nAt least 54 Palestinians, roughly half of them civilians, were killed in Gaza fighting Saturday, the deadliest day in more than seven years of violence, Palestinian medical officials said. Another 14 Palestinians, one of them a 21-month-old girl, were killed or found dead Sunday. Two Israeli soldiers were killed on Saturday.\nSince the latest bout of fighting erupted on Wednesday, more than 100 Palestinians have been killed, according to an AP tally based on information from Palestinian medical officials and militant groups.\n“We are following the aggression against our people in Gaza,” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told reporters. “I’ve conducted contacts with various leaders, with the Security Council, with the EU and with Arab leaders to work to stop this aggression,” he said.\nPalestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said peace talks with Israel had been halted.\n“For the time being, the negotiations are suspended because we have so many funerals,” he said. It was unclear when the talks, relaunched last November at a U.S.-hosted summit, would resume.\nSecretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to visit this week to try to spur progress in peace talks. Instead, she will likely spend her visit trying to put out the latest fire.\nPrime Minister Ismail Haniyeh’s office was empty at the time of Sunday’s pre-dawn airstrike. But the raid was seen as a tough message to the Hamas leadership, which Israel holds responsible for repeated rocket barrages launched from Gaza.\nHaniyeh spoke to leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, asking them “to stop this aggression,” said government spokesman Taher Nunu. He also called for reconciliation talks with Fatah, the rival Palestinian faction headed by Abbas and ousted from Gaza by Hamas last June.\nIsrael’s response to incessant Palestinian rocket fire at southern Israeli communities drew hard international condemnation. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon accused Israel of “disproportionate and excessive use of force.”\nPrime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected the criticism and vowed to press on with the Gaza offensive.\n“With all due respect, nothing will prevent us from continuing operations to protect our citizens,” he told his Cabinet.\nOlmert’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, said an even broader Gaza operation was in the cards, aimed at crushing militant rocket squads but also to “weaken the Hamas rule, in the right circumstances, even to bring it down.”\nIsrael regularly clashes with Gaza rocket squads, but intensified its operations after militants fired salvos last week into Ashkelon, a city of 120,000 closer to Israel’s heartland than previous targets. By striking Ashkelon, some 11 miles north of Gaza, Hamas added pressure on Israeli leaders to exact a high price for the increasing sense of insecurity felt in southern Israel.\nThe onslaught failed however to stop rockets from battering southern Israel. Nine were fired at southern Israel by midday Sunday, including one that struck a house in the rocket-scarred town of Sderot less than a mile from Gaza, the military said. One rocket lightly wounded four Sderot residents, Israeli rescue services said.\nAbout 50 rockets and mortars were fired Saturday, injuring six Israelis.
(04/16/07 4:00am)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – A previously unknown Palestinian group said Sunday it had killed a British journalist kidnapped over a month ago by gunmen in Gaza City, but the claim could not be confirmed.\nIn a statement sent to news organizations, “The brigades of Tawheed and Jihad” said it killed BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston, 42, to support demands for the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. However, the BBC and the Palestinian government both said there was no evidence to back up the claim.\n“The BBC is aware of these reports,” the organization said in a statement. “But we have no independent verification of them.”\nThe group claiming to have killed him is unknown in Gaza, but the name has been used elsewhere in the Middle East by organizations linked to al-Qaida.\n“This party that issued the statement about the so-called killing is unknown to the security services,” Palestinian Interior Minister Hani Kawasmeh told a news conference in Gaza City. “There is no information to confirm the killing of Johnston until now.”\nJohnston, from Scotland, was snatched at gunpoint in Gaza City on March 12. Since then there had been no demands from his captors or any word on his condition.\nHe has been missing longer than any other foreigner kidnapped in Gaza. The only foreign reporter still based in Gaza, he was snatched just weeks before he was scheduled to end his three-year stint there. Other news organizations withdrew their foreign-born reporters because of the deteriorating security situation there.\nMore than a dozen foreign journalists and aid workers have been abducted by gunmen in Gaza in the past 18 months, often in a bid by Palestinian militants to get money or jobs. Most have been released without major physical injury within hours or days. An exception was the abduction of two Fox News employees in August, who were held for two weeks before they were freed.
(08/28/06 1:08am)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Militants freed two Fox News journalists Sunday, ending a nearly two week hostage drama. One of the former captives said they were sometimes held face down in a dark garage, tied up in painful positions and forced at gunpoint to make videos and say they had converted to Islam.\nCorrespondent Steve Centanni, 60, of Washington, D.C., and cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, of New Zealand, were dropped off at Gaza City's Beach Hotel by Palestinian security officials. A tearful Centanni briefly embraced a Palestinian journalist in the lobby, then rushed upstairs with Wiig behind him.\nThe pair, who appeared to be in good health, then met with Palestinian officials, including Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. The three men sat in a circle of chairs at the hotel, before the journalists held a news conference, then left for Israel.\nThe journalists said they hoped their ordeal would not prevent others from covering the Palestinians.\n"I want to thank everybody. I am happy to be here. I hope that this never scares a single journalist away from coming to Gaza to cover the story because the Palestinian people are very beautiful and kind-hearted," Centanni told reporters. "The world needs to know more about them. Don't be discouraged."\nWiig also said he was worried that the kidnapping would scare off reporters.\n"My biggest concern really is that as a result of what happened to us, foreign journalists will be discouraged from coming to tell the story and that would be a great tragedy for the people of Palestine," Wiig said. "You guys need us on the streets, and you need people to be aware of the story"
(08/24/06 4:13am)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- A previously unknown Palestinian group released the first video Wednesday of two kidnapped Fox News journalists and demanded that Muslim prisoners in U.S. jails be released within 72 hours in exchange for the men.\nIn the video, correspondent Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig appeared to be in good health, seated on the floor in sweat suits against a black background with no logos or banners. No armed men were shown.\nThe two had not been seen since they were kidnapped Aug. 14 near the Palestinian Security Services headquarters in Gaza City.\n"Our captors are treating us well," said Centanni, 60, of Washington, D.C., adding that they had access to clean water, showers, bathrooms, food and clothing.\n"So, just want to let you know I am here and alive and give my love to my family and friends and ask to do anything you can to try to help us get out of here," he added.\nA written statement accompanying the video was issued by a group called the Holy Jihad Brigades. The statement railed against the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.\n"The powers of evil are united in waging wars against Islam and their people," it said.\nIt marked the first time a militant group in Gaza made demands on a foreign country other than Israel, which was not directly mentioned in the statement.\nLocal militant groups have routinely tried to limit the conflict to a fight between Palestinians and Israel, hoping not to jeopardize international support for the Palestinian cause. All the major Palestinian militant groups condemned the kidnapping and denied involvement.\nIt was unclear whether a group from outside Gaza could be involved. Palestinian and Israeli officials have previously said al-Qaida was trying to infiltrate into Gaza from Egypt.\nThe militants' statement was peppered with verses from the Koran and written in a literary, poetic style -- a sharp departure from the terse statements usually issued by Palestinian militant groups.\nThe video and the accompanying statement were first delivered to the Palestinian news agency Ramattan. The Associated Press obtained copies of both.\nThe statement demanded Muslim prisoners in U.S. jails be released within three days in exchange for Centanni and Wiig. The group did not say what would happen if the deadline passed unanswered.\nInitially, Ramattan reported that the kidnappers demanded the release of Palestinian prisoners. But no such demand was contained in their statement.
(07/03/06 2:06am)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israeli aircraft sent missiles tearing through the office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday in an unmistakable message to his ruling Hamas group to free an Israeli soldier.\nPrime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet that the military had been ordered to "do all it can" to return the captured 19-year-old corporal, and cautioned that arrests of senior Hamas officials could spread to Gaza, the Islamic militant group's power base, a government official close to the prime minister said.\nDefense Minister Amir Peretz told the Cabinet meeting that Israel would go after "higher-caliber targets" in the future -- a reference to senior Hamas officials inside and outside the Palestinian territories, a high-ranking political official said.\nIsraeli aircraft, tanks and naval gunboats have been pounding Gaza for the past week in an effort to win the freedom of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was seized June 25 in a cross-border raid that left two comrades dead. Thousands of troops also were sent into the coastal strip for Israel's first ground invasion since quitting Gaza nine months ago.\nLate last week, Olmert called off plans to broaden the incursion in deference to intense diplomatic efforts involving Egypt and other regional players.\nThere has been no direct evidence of the soldier's condition since he was seized by Hamas-linked militant groups.\nSo far, the ground invasion has been focused on southern Gaza, where Israel believes Shalit was taken. On Sunday, officials decided to invade northern Gaza if rocket fire on southern Israel resumes from that area, security officials said.\nThere has been no rocket fire since Saturday night, the military said.\nPalestinians said two missiles fired by attack helicopters set Haniyeh's office ablaze, but it was empty because of the early hour -- 1:45 a.m., witnesses said. One bystander was injured slightly, hospital officials said.\nHaniyeh, inspecting the burning office building, called the Israeli attack senseless.\n"They have targeted a symbol for the Palestinian people," he said.\nLater, before meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Haniyeh vowed, "This will not break the will of the Palestinian people."\nAfter the meeting, the two men surveyed Haniyeh's damaged office together, waving through a hole in the wall.\n"The world must understand that this is a dirty, criminal act," Abbas said.\nIsraeli Cabinet minister Roni Bar-On said the objective of the attack on Haniyeh's office was to "compromise the Hamas government's ability to rule."\n"We will strike and will continue to strike at (Hamas') institutions," said Bar-On, an Olmert ally. "They have to understand that we will not continue to let them run amok."\nHamas, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, took power after winning January parliamentary elections. The group has a military wing and a political wing, and its political leadership is divided between more moderate elements in the West Bank and Gaza, and the more radical top leadership based in Syria.\nThe gunmen holding Shalit are believed to take their orders from Hamas' Damascus-based political chief, Khaled Mashaal.\nIn other airstrikes after midnight, Israeli aircraft hit a school in Gaza city and Hamas facilities in northern Gaza, where a Hamas militant was killed and another wounded, Palestinian officials said. The military said they were "planning terror attacks against Israel."\nThe 34-year-old Hamas gunman, Shaaban Manoun, was the second militant killed in the five-day Israeli operation.\nIsraeli artillery also fired at open spaces near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, the military said. It denied Palestinian radio reports that Hamas training camps were the target. No injuries were reported.\nExerting pressure on Hamas from various directions, Israel continued to hold 64 Hamas leaders, including eight Cabinet ministers, rounded up in the West Bank on Thursday night.\nHamas' roots are in Gaza, and that is where Haniyeh and most other Cabinet ministers live.\n"I don't promise that the arrests of senior Hamas officials will be limited to Judea and Samaria," the official close to the prime minister quoted Olmert as saying, using the biblical names for the West Bank. "Wherever there is a proven terror infrastructure, there will be arrests. There will be immunity for no one."\nThe official spoke on condition of anonymity because the Cabinet session was confidential.\nMilitary officials said the government would bring the detainees before a court this week to seek permission to extend their detention.\nIsrael, meanwhile, reopened its main cargo crossing with Gaza to allow food, medical supplies and fuel to be sent in to the impoverished area from Israel, Israeli officials said.\nWhile food shortages have not been reported, human rights groups have cautioned that Gaza could face a humanitarian crisis because about 43 percent of the territory's electricity supply was knocked out after Israeli missiles struck Gaza's only power station. Israel has increased its supply of electricity to Gaza, the Israeli army said Saturday, but fuel for generators has been scarce.\nOn Saturday, Hamas demanded the release of more than 1,000 prisoners held by Israel, but Israel rejected that out of hand.\nOlmert again said Sunday that Israel would not yield to Hamas' demands.\n"Israel doesn't intend to give into blackmail of any sort," Olmert told his Cabinet. "Giving in today would be an invitation to the next act of terror."\nHamas government spokesman Ghazi Hamad urged Israel to be more flexible.\n"I think that if the Israeli government will understand that it's possible to release prisoners, things will end OK," Hamad told Army Radio. "If not, I think the situation will be very difficult for us and for you, too. ... Maybe there will be a (military) escalation and people will die."\nPeretz met with senior security officials Saturday night and then called Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to urge the Bush administration to step up pressure on Syria to work for Shalit's release, Israeli officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make a formal statement.
(06/12/06 2:03am)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israeli aircraft struck a rocket-launching cell in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing two militants from the Palestinians' ruling Hamas party. The attack came after Hamas activists fired a barrage of rockets at southern Israel.\nThe violence brought the two sides closer to a broader armed conflict. Hamas' military wing called off its 16-month truce with Israel on Saturday, a day after Israeli shelling was blamed for killing eight Palestinians at seaside picnic.\nThe rising tensions coincide with attempts by moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to persuade the Hamas-led government to endorse a document calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. That would in effect mean recognizing the Jewish state, which Hamas has refused to do.\nAbbas, leader of the rival Fatah party, plans to hold a referendum on the document on July 26. He brushed off Hamas' call to put off the vote because of the beach attack.\nIsraeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed "deep sorrow" over the deaths at his weekly Cabinet meeting, but insisted the Israeli military "never had a policy of striking civilians."\nMaj.-Gen. Yoav Galant, the head of Israel's southern command, said Sunday the military had proof it wasn't responsible. He said the military suspended artillery fire 15 minutes before the explosion at the beach, Army Radio reported.\nGalant said that Israel has not ruled out a ground operation against militants in Gaza, which it evacuated last summer after a 38-year occupation, the radio station said.\nNow that Hamas has openly resumed its rocket fire, the Islamic militant group "and all of its supporters should expect a serious blow," Galant said.\nSince Hamas reached the February 2005 truce, Palestinian militants from various factions have relied largely on rocket attacks in their battle against Israel. Israel has responded by bombarding militants' operations with artillery fire and air strikes.\nOvernight Saturday and early Sunday, Hamas fired 17 rockets at southern Israel, including one that hit a school in the southern town of Sderot, the Israeli military said. A man at the school was hit with shrapnel and his life was in danger, hospital officials said.\nHamas' military wing in Gaza said it had fired nine of the \nrockets.\n"We have decided to make Sderot a ghost town," said a Hamas spokesman who gave his name only as Abu Ubeideh. "We are not going to stop launching our rockets until they leave."\nResidents of Sderot demanded the government act to protect them, and city authorities canceled school classes after rockets hit the town. Israeli police were on high alert against revenge attacks throughout the country, especially at malls and on buses, where suicide bombings have often been carried out, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.\nIsrael halted its artillery fire against rocket-launching operations Friday while it investigated the attack on the beach. But it continued its more accurate air strike operations, firing missiles at Hamas militants on a rocket-launching mission near the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahia, the army said.\nTwo militants were killed in that strike, and three were wounded, Hamas' military wing and hospital officials said.\nThere was no immediate reaction from Hamas to the strike.\nHamas killed more than 250 Israelis in attacks in the 4 1/2 years leading up to the truce. But it wasn't clear whether Hamas' takeover of the Palestinian Authority in January parliamentary elections would restrain its military wing from resuming an all-out bombing war.\nHamas political leaders said after the Gaza beach killings that Palestinians had the right to respond to Israeli aggression. They have not acted to prevent the movement's military wing or other factions from attacking Israel.\nHamas' heightened hostilities with Israel have come at a time of increased infighting between the group's militants and gunmen affiliated with Abbas' Fatah \nmovement.\nAmong other things, Abbas hopes his proposed July 26 referendum would help to end the infighting, which has killed 17 Palestinians in the past month. Accepting a two-state solution would also help the Palestinians achieve their dream of statehood and end a debilitating international aid boycott imposed after Hamas' rise to power, he said in announcing the vote.\nHamas immediately rejected the notion of the referendum, which is expected to win a clear majority despite rising anger at Israel and clashes between militants.\nAbbas, elected separately last year, met with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas in Gaza on Saturday, and made it clear the vote would be held as planned, Abbas' spokesman said.\nAbbas and Haniyeh were scheduled to meet again later Sunday.\nIn other news, an Islamic Jihad militant was killed in an explosion in his home in the northern Gaza Strip, hospital officials said.\nPalestinian firefighters said the blast originated inside the house in the town of Jebaliya, and was not the result of an attack.\nIn the past, militants have died when explosives they were preparing went off prematurely.\nIslamic Jihad said the explosion was caused by Israeli aircraft, but the Israeli army said it knew of no Israeli operation in Jebaliya.
(02/03/06 4:13am)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Armed militants angered by a cartoon drawing of the Prophet Muhammad published in European newspapers surrounded EU offices in Gaza on Thursday and threatened to kidnap foreigners as outrage over the caricatures spread across the Islamic world.\nMore than 300 students demonstrated in Pakistan, chanting "Death to France!" and "Death to Denmark!" -- two of the countries where newspapers published the drawings. Other protests were held in Syria and Lebanon.\nOfficials in Afghanistan, Iran and Indonesia condemned the publication. In Paris, the daily France Soir fired its managing editor after it ran the caricatures Wednesday.\nA Jordanian newspaper took the bold step of running some of the drawings, saying it wanted to show its readers how offensive the cartoons were but also urging the world's Muslims to "be reasonable." Hours later, the owners of the weekly, Shihan, said they had fired its editor and withdrawn the issue from sale, and the government threatened legal action.\nForeign journalists, diplomats and aid workers began leaving Gaza as gunmen there threatened to kidnap citizens of France, Norway, Denmark and Germany unless those governments apologize for the cartoon.\nGunmen in the West Bank city of Nablus entered four hotels to search for foreigners to abduct and warned their owners not to host guests from several European countries. Gunmen said they were also searching apartments in Nablus for Europeans.\nMilitants in Gaza said they would shut down media offices from France, Norway, Denmark and Germany, singling out the French news agency Agence France-Presse.\n"Any citizens of these countries, who are present in Gaza, will put themselves in danger," a Fatah-affiliated gunman said outside the EU Commission's office in Gaza, flanked by two masked men holding rifles.\nIf the European governments don't apologize by Thursday evening, "any visitor of these countries will be targeted," he said.\nThe furor over the drawings, which first ran in the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten in September, cuts to the question of which is more sacred in the Western world -- freedom of expression or respect for religious beliefs. The cartoons include an image of Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse.\nIslamic law, based on clerics' interpretation of the Quran and the sayings of the prophet, absolutely forbids depictions, even positive ones, of the Prophet Muhammad in order to prevent idolatry.\nThe drawings have prompted boycotts of Danish goods, bomb threats and demonstrations against Danish facilities.\nThe Danish newspaper defended its decision to publish the caricatures, citing freedom of expression, but apologized to Muslims for causing offense.\nFrance Soir and several other European papers reprinted the drawings in solidarity with the Danish daily. Jyllands-Posten also had put some of the drawings briefly on its Web site, and the images still can be found elsewhere on the Internet.\nThe Israeli newspaper Maariv published a tiny version of the Muhammad-bomb caricature Thursday, on page 16.\nForeign journalists were pulling out of Gaza on Thursday, and foreign media organizations were canceling plans to send more people in.\nNorway suspended operations at its office in the West Bank town of Ram after receiving threats connected to publication of the cartoons by the Norwegian Christian newspaper Magazinet.
(01/14/05 2:36pm)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Palestinian militants set off a large truck bomb as gunmen stormed an Israeli base at a vital Gaza crossing Thursday, killing five Israelis and wounding five others in an attack that defied peace efforts by new Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.\nThe assault, in which three Palestinians attackers were also killed, was by far the biggest since Abbas won an election Sunday to succeed Yasser Arafat as head of the Palestinian Authority. Abbas has been trying to persuade militant groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad to agree to a cease-fire, but so far with no success.\nThe bombing came just hours after Hamas' West Bank leader -- known as a relative moderate within Hamas -- said it might consider an end to attacks against Israel. Hamas was one of three militant groups that claimed responsibility for the bombing, dubbing it "Shaking Castles."\nThe attack took place just before 11 p.m. at the Karni crossing, where all the farm produce and other goods enter and leave the Gaza Strip.\nThe militants entered the crossing in a bomb-laden truck minutes before it was to close, the military said. They blew a hole in the security wall between the Israeli and Palestinian sides of the crossing, and at least two gunmen charged through and attacked the Israelis.\nOne report said they blew themselves up, but another said they opened fire and were killed by Israeli soldiers.\nAbout 90 minutes after the attack, Israeli helicopters fired three missiles early Friday at a building in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza used by Islamic Jihad, the Israeli military and Palestinian security officials said. One person was slightly wounded.\nIsrael intends to pull out of Gaza in the summer. Militant groups have been stepping up their attacks in recent months in an attempt to show that they are forcing the Israelis out. A month ago, soldiers discovered a tunnel militants were digging toward the Karni checkpoint in an attempt to blow it up.\nFive Israelis were killed in Thursday's attack, the Israeli military said. Israeli hospital officials said they were treating three seriously wounded people and two slightly wounded.\nOn the Palestinian side, a statement to The Associated Press from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, affiliated with Abbas' Fatah faction, said two fighters were killed "in a martyrdom operation" near the Karni crossing. Later, a militant faction said a third gunman was killed while trying to ambush rescue workers.\nA spokesman for another group, the Popular Resistance Committees, said militants filmed the attack. Hamas also claimed responsibility in the joint operation.\nJust hours earlier, the top Hamas official in the West Bank, Sheik Hassan Yousef, told the AP that Hamas is open to a truce with Israel and is no longer bent on destroying the Jewish state, recognizing that Palestinians are weary after four years of conflict.\nThe comments went a step beyond previous Hamas statements indicating it might accept Israel as a temporary presence only.\nYousef, who is among Hamas' founding members, is known as a relative moderate within the group, and other leaders couldn't immediately be reached for reaction. The group's main leaders are based in Syria and Lebanon, and they usually stick to the Islamic movement's uncompromising line against Israel.\nYousef said the group is reconsidering its violent tactics, though a final decision hasn't been made.\nThe official ideology of Hamas does not recognize a place for a Jewish state in an Islamic Middle East. In the past, the furthest Hamas leaders have gone is to say they would accept a "temporary" Palestinian state in only the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the framework of a long-term cease-fire with Israel -- but that Hamas would not make peace with the Jewish state and believes the Palestinians have the right to all Israeli land.\nYousef said Hamas understands that the Palestinian people are weary after more than four years of fighting. "We read the regional and the international reality and the changes that have taken place based on this reality, and we take positions according to these changes," Yousef said.\n"Hamas doesn't want to eliminate Israel. Hamas is a realistic political movement," he said. "There is a thing called Jews and a thing called Israel and we deal with this reality."\nDespite Yousef's comments on Thursday to The Associated Press, Israelis were skeptical.\n"We're going to have to see what the reaction is. This guy has a reputation for piping off," cautioned Mark Heller, an analyst at the Jaffe Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University. "I don't think he was speaking for the (Hamas) movement."\nA senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Israel would deal only with Abbas' Palestinian Authority.\nIsrael insists that Abbas dismantle the militants groups, according to the terms of the stillborn "road map" peace plan, backed by the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia.\nInstead of cracking down, Abbas has been trying to prod the Islamic militants into a truce. In his brief tenure as prime minister in 2003, Abbas succeeded in forging a cease-fire to halt attacks against Israel, but it collapsed after a few weeks amid Palestinian bombings and Israeli reprisals.\nOn Wednesday, Mahmoud Zahar, a top Hamas leader in Gaza, said Hamas has no plans to disarm, and Abbas has no authority to order an end to attacks on Israel.
(09/20/04 4:51am)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- An Israeli helicopter fired a missile at a car in Gaza City late Sunday, residents said, killing a senior Hamas militant leader. This was the latest Israeli attack in the territory it plans to leave next year.\nWitnesses said parts of a dismembered body were pulled from the wreckage. Hospital officials said six were wounded, two seriously and all bystanders returning from a mosque.\nWitness Omar Arfa, 52, who owns a fast food stand nearby, said the street was full of cars. "A spark came from the sky, then there was a huge explosion in part of street," he said.\nThe Israeli military had no official comment. But military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said an Israeli attack helicopter carried out the attack.\nHamas identified the dead man as Khaled Abu Shamiyeh, 30, from the Shati refugee camp next to Gaza City. Hamas did not say what role he played in the violent Islamic group, which has claimed responsibility for dozens of suicide bombings in Israel.\nAngry Hamas militants gathered at the hospital and called for revenge against Israel. Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri said, "Hamas will teach the enemy (Israel) a painful lesson."\nThe Israelis often target Palestinian militants and metal workshops in Gaza air strikes.\nEarlier Sunday, an Israeli manufacturer said a radar system installed in an Israeli border town provides a 20-second warning if Palestinian militants fire rockets from the nearby Gaza Strip.\nPrime Minister Ariel Sharon also told the weekly meeting of the Israeli Cabinet that Israel would retaliate for rocket attacks, even if they come from civilian areas.\n"We have to think about how to act against the sources of the fire, after warning the civilians," he said.\nSharon's remarks apparently were aimed at hard-line critics who say his planned withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 would expose Israel to intense rocket attacks.\nSince the start of Israeli-Palestinian fighting four years ago, Palestinian militants have fired dozens of inaccurate, low-explosive rockets at Israeli border towns and Jewish settlements in Gaza.\nThe town of Sderot, a mile from Gaza, has been hit hardest, and two Israelis, including a 4-year-old boy, were killed by rocket fire there in June. Many missiles have fallen into fields, while others have damaged homes and cars.\nAn early-warning system was recently installed in Sderot to allow residents enough time to get into bomb shelters before the rockets land, said Giora Shalgi, the director of Rafael, an Israeli arms manufacturer.\n"It can identify in a very short time where it (the rocket) was launched and assess where it will fall and operate a warning system while the rocket is in the air, which is for about 20 seconds, depending on the range," Shalgi told Israel Radio.\nIn other developments, the army decided to change the military code name for the Gaza withdrawal, to avoid offending religious Jews. The name initially chosen was "heavenly splendor," a phrase used in a Jewish prayer recited at funerals, a security official said. No new name has been chosen, but the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot said "stepping stones" was being considered.\nIsraeli security forces have been preparing for possible violence from extremist settlers during the evacuation. Sunday, Shin Bet security chief Avi Dichter came out against placing Jewish extremists under administrative detention without trial during the pullout. Dichter told the Cabinet that existing legal measures should be used, Shin Bet officials said.\nIsrael often detains Palestinians under administrative detention. Also, a pro-Palestinian Israeli is currently being held without trial.\nIsraeli soldiers killed a Palestinian Sunday near the Karni crossing between Gaza and Israel. Palestinian hospital officials said he came from the Jebaliya refugee camp. The army said he was a member of the militant Islamic Jihad group.\nIn the West Bank, about 200 Palestinians and foreign supporters demonstrated in Beit Awwa, near the city of Hebron, against the construction of Israel's separation barrier.\nIn a shoving match, two Palestinians were injured when they were kicked by the police, witnesses said. Israeli border police reported four officers were injured.
(09/08/04 6:12am)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia condemned an Israeli air strike that killed 14 Hamas militants in unusually harsh terms Tuesday, warning the attack will invite a tough response from the militant group and saying retaliation will be "justified."\nPalestinian officials said Qureia's comments reflected his people's outrage as well as his impatience with the political paralysis within the Palestinian authority. They said Qureia told Cabinet ministers he was so frustrated he wants to resign.\nThe Israeli attack, which struck a Hamas training camp in Gaza City shortly after midnight, came a week after Hamas suicide bombers blew up two Israeli buses in the Israeli city of Beersheba, killing 16 people.\nThe air strike was one of the deadliest of dozens Israel has launched since fighting broke out with the Palestinians four years ago. Thousands of Palestinian mourners in Gaza clamored for revenge and Hamas vowed to avenge the attack.\nQureia, speaking at a Palestinian Cabinet meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah, said he was outraged.\n"No crime goes unpunished," he said. "For sure there will be retaliation, and the retaliation will be justified if it happens."\nWhile Palestinian leaders always criticize Israeli attacks, Qureia's reaction was especially harsh, hinting he would tolerate a Hamas reprisal. In the past, Qureia has distanced himself from Hamas, which has carried out dozens of suicide bombings.\nQureia's comments appeared to reflect the Palestinian public's anger over the air strike. But a government minister said Qureia also was frustrated by his general sense of powerlessness.\nPalestinian leader Yasser Arafat has repeatedly blocked efforts to reform the corruption-plagued Palestinian authority while Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon refuses to negotiate with the Palestinians.\n"We as a Cabinet are not able to do anything," the minister quoted Qureia as saying. "I am going to Arafat. I will tell him we can't work like this," Qureia said, waving a resignation letter in front of them.\nIt wasn't immediately clear whether Qureia would follow through on the threat. He has made similar threats in the past -- and briefly stepped down in July -- only to back down under pressure from Arafat.\nAn Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, brushed off Qureia's comments on retaliation, saying the prime minister lacked the power to do anything.\nThe Israeli helicopters struck the Hamas camp with five missiles early Tuesday, killing 14 militants and wounding 30 other people. The army said the camp, located in the Hamas stronghold of Shajaiyeh in Gaza City, was used to train militants to fire mortars and rockets. In the past month, Hamas assembled a large bomb and a suicide bomber's explosives belt at the training camp, the army added.\nThe attack sparked an outpouring of rage. Children stayed home from school, and black smoke billowed over the city as students burned tires in spontaneous demonstrations. Some 30,000 people, including dozens of militants, joined a funeral procession. As men fired machine guns into the air, the crowd screamed for revenge.\n \n"Our response to this crime is coming, God willing, and our twin attack in Beersheba is only one part of many strikes to come," a Hamas militant shouted over loud speakers mounted on a car.\nSince the current round of fighting with the Palestinians began in September 2000, Israel has frequently targeted militants.\nBut Tuesday's attack was one of the deadliest. The strikes are usually aimed at very specific targets -- usually top leaders or militants on their way to an attack.\n"No one is immune when he carries out terrorist attacks against innocent Israeli civilians," Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said.\nThe air strikes have enraged the Palestinians and drawn international criticism, particularly because of the frequent civilian casualties. Hamas said all 14 people killed Tuesday were militants.\nIn Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell urged Israel and the Palestinians to seek a way out of their conflict. Of the air strike, Powell said, "I don't think they (retaliatory raids) are very helpful. The situation is very tragic."\nEgyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit condemned the air strike, saying it "raises doubts about the real intentions of the Israeli government." He said the strike undermined Egypt's efforts to bring calm to the area.\nWith Sharon refusing to negotiate with the Palestinians, Egypt has stepped in as a mediator as Israel prepares to withdraw from the Gaza Strip next year.\nAboul Gheit was in the West Bank Monday to work on preparations for the withdrawal with the Palestinians.\nAlso Tuesday, Israeli forces cut main Gaza roads in two places, dividing the seaside territory into three parts -- a common step following violence. The Israelis say it's a security measure, but Palestinians call it collective punishment.
(09/07/04 5:30am)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israeli helicopters attacked a Hamas training field early Tuesday, killing at least 13 Palestinians and wounding 25 in the bloodiest strike in Gaza in months, officials from both sides said. Most of the casualties were members of the anti-Israeli militant group.\nThe attack came a week after Hamas carried out a double suicide bombing in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, killing 16 Israelis and breaking a six-month lull in major violence against the Jewish state. The suicide bombers were from the West Bank city of Hebron.\nThe Israeli military said the air force targeted the field, near the border with Israel, that was being used by Hamas for bomb assembly and training.\nAngry Hamas militants gathered at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City -- some with blood on their clothes from carrying victims -- shouting "revenge, revenge."\n"This bloody crime is a new wave of aggression committed against our people and against our sons," Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri said. "It's an ongoing war. One day for us and one day for them."\nThe Israeli statement listed events that it said took place at the field in recent days, including assembly of a large bomb and a suicide bomber's vest, practice in hijacking vehicles and training in preparing and firing mortars and rockets.\nAl-Masri denied that the targeted field was used for training, calling it a summer camp for Palestinian youth.\nHospital officials said at least 13 people were killed and 25 wounded. Witnesses said the casualties were members of the Hamas military wing or supporters. Many wore military-style uniforms.\nThe air strike was in the Shajaiyeh section of Gaza City, a known stronghold of the violent Islamic Hamas. The casualty toll was the highest in Gaza City since May, when a spate of heavy fighting killed 31 Palestinians and 13 Israeli soldiers.\nOn Monday, Israel's defense minister Shaul Mofaz said he is moving another planned section of the West Bank separation barrier closer to Israel. Israel says it needs the barrier to keep out suicide bombers.\nThe barrier is part of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's contentious plan of "unilateral disengagement" from the Palestinians, including a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the evacuation of four small West Bank settlements in 2005. Sharon has said he wants to keep several large West Bank settlements as part of any future peace deal.\nOne-third of the 425-mile barrier has already been built in the northern West Bank, but army planners have redrawn parts of the remaining route further to the south to comply with the court order. Palestinians have complained that the wall's path in the north has cut off Palestinians from their land and other services.\nIsrael began construction of the southern segment of the barrier after Palestinian suicide bombers infiltrated across the unprotected line there and blew up two buses in Beersheba last Tuesday.\nThe original plan in the south was to cut into the West Bank in several places to include some Jewish settlements on the "Israeli" side, but Mofaz said Monday this was being changed.\n"In light of the Supreme Court (rulings), we decided to plan another route that in principle ran along the Green Line," Mofaz told Army Radio, referring to Israel's old frontier, before it captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war.\nJewish settlements that find themselves on the "Palestinian" side will be encircled by separate fences, Mofaz said.\nSharon reportedly wanted to include some of these settlements on the Israeli side. A Sharon adviser, Raanan Gissin, said no final decision has been made, but that he did not expect major changes to the route proposed by Mofaz.\nThe separation barrier has disrupted the lives of thousands of Palestinians, cutting them off from schools, jobs and land. Earlier this year, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered changes in the planned route to ease hardships.\nPalestinians object to the barrier in principle, calling it an "apartheid wall" meant to dictate borders, effectively annexing parts of the West Bank to Israel.\nThe world court has issued an advisory ruling calling the barrier illegal, saying it should be torn down. Israel dismissed the ruling as one-sided and politically motivated, but Israel's attorney general has said the ruling can't be ignored, and the Supreme Court ordered the government to state how it is dealing with it.\nIsrael broke ground Sunday on a 25-mile stretch that officials said would run along the Green Line.\nMofaz on Monday referred to a separate 35-mile stretch, security officials said. The original route would have effectively annexed about 20 square miles of West Bank land.\nAlso Monday, visiting Egyptian officials told Palestinian leaders that they would not send experts to Gaza to help train Palestinian forces to take control there unless Israel accepts a cease-fire, a Palestinian official said.\nEgyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and intelligence chief Omar Suleiman met Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to discuss cease-fire efforts and the planned Israeli pullout from Gaza.\nPalestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath told The Associated Press that the Egyptians called for Palestinian unity. Egypt has been trying unsuccessfully for more than a year to forge a common Palestinian declaration of a truce in the conflict with Israel.\nShaath said Egypt is calling a meeting at the end of the month with all the Palestinian factions to press the truce idea.\n"Until Israel accepts a comprehensive cease fire, they will not send their experts to Gaza," Shaath said.\nIsrael has not been approached about a new cease-fire. Last summer Palestinians declared a unilateral truce, but it collapsed after a few weeks amid Palestinian attacks and Israeli retaliation.
(03/24/04 5:39am)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israel threatened to kill the entire leadership of the Islamic militant group Hamas after assassinating its founder and hinted Tuesday Yasser Arafat could wind up on the hit list in the future.\nThe accelerated strikes toward Hamas are part of an attempt to score a decisive victory ahead of an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Israel does not want to be seen as being driven out of the strip by the militants, who already are claiming victory.\nThe tough talk came the same day Hamas hard-liner Abdel Aziz Rantisi was elected as the new leader of the Islamic militant group in Gaza. The 54-year-old pediatrician replaces Sheik Ahmed Yassin, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike early Monday.\nIsraeli gunboats fired machine guns toward Gaza's coast late Tuesday, witnesses said. There were no reports of damage or casualties, and the Israeli military had no immediate comment. Palestinians said the gunboats were firing at Palestinian fishing boats and piers.\nRantisi, who has pushed for accelerating attacks on Israel and has ruled out all compromise, told tens of thousands of cheering Hamas supporters at a soccer stadium he was chosen in secret elections. One by one, senior Hamas officials got up and swore loyalty to him.\nIn his acceptance speech, Rantisi made his priorities clear. "My people, we must unify under the umbrella of resistance," he said, and he exhorted the Hamas military wing to "teach this Zionist occupation a lesson."\nRantisi has rejected even a temporary truce with Israel and any compromise with Arafat's Palestinian Authority. His aggressive style is particularly popular with younger Hamas activists.\nWith his new post, Rantisi will likely become an even more tempting target for Israel's military, which wounded him in a missile attack on his car last year.\nMonday, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and various security agency chiefs decided to go after all the Hamas leaders, a security official said Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.\nThe Israeli army chief, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, hinted Arafat might eventually be targeted, as well. The killing of Yassin should be seen as a signal "to all those who choose to harm us that this will be their end," Yaalon said.\n"It is our view that decapitation of the terrorist infrastructure is one means among the strategies in the war against terror," the general said. "The strike on Yassin is a significant blow to the Hamas terror organization."\nAfter Yassin's killing, Hamas threatened revenge attacks of unprecedented scope, and Israel beefed up security throughout the country and at missions abroad. Shopping malls, markets and buses were relatively empty as jittery Israelis hunkered down.\nOpinion polls published in newspapers Tuesday suggested a majority of Israelis support Yassin's killing.\nDespite the Israeli threats, the Hamas leaders apparently in Israel's crosshairs -- Rantisi, Mahmoud Zahar and Ismail Hanieh -- made rare public appearances, though surrounded by a shield of civilians.\nSince Monday night, the three have spent long hours at Gaza City's Yarmouk Stadium, where Hamas set up an official mourning tent. Tuesday, tens of thousands of people crammed into the stadium. Armed men from various militias stood as honor guards near the entrance.\nZahar brushed off Israel's threats. "They tried to assassinate me twice and Dr. Rantisi once," he said. "We are still working and will continue ... and they (Israelis) will fail, and they will leave this land."\nPalestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia briefly paid his condolences. The Palestinian Authority declared three days of mourning for Yassin, and stores closed throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Hamas is the biggest rival to the authority, but Palestinian leaders treat the movement with care because of its popularity.\nHamas, founded by Yassin in 1987, wants to destroy Israel and replace it with an Islamic state. Israel says Hamas has killed 377 Israelis in hundreds of attacks, including 52 suicide bombings, over the years.\nThe Hamas Web site published a message Tuesday stating Yassin had sent a letter to the upcoming Arab summit in Tunisia. Yassin reiterated that violence was the only way to drive out the Israelis and demanded Arab countries cut all ties with Israel.\n"The land of Palestine is an Arab, Islamic land which was occupied with the force of weapons by the Jewish Zionists and we will not get it back except with the force of weapons," the letter read.\nDespite its threats of revenge, Hamas' initial response was relatively tepid. It fired mortar shells and homemade Qassam rockets toward Israeli targets in Gaza, causing no injuries.\nHamas might have trouble carrying out a large-scale attack, in part because Israel has become more effective in stopping bombers.\nThe number of suicide bombings and the number of victims has dropped, with 142 Israelis killed in 22 bombings in 2003, compared to 214 killed in 53 bombings in 2002. Analysts attributed the drop to Israel's partially-built West Bank barrier, increased intelligence and Hamas leaders' fear of assassination.\nHamas said Monday it held the United States partially responsible for the killing of Yassin, in what was seen as a veiled threat against Washington, D.C. However, at Tuesday's reception for mourners at the Gaza soccer stadium, speakers did not make any threats against the United States, only against Israel.
(03/08/04 4:27am)
BUREIJ REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip -- Israeli troops carried out their deadliest raid in Gaza in 17 months Sunday, part of a surge of bloodshed ahead of a possible Israeli withdrawal from the coastal strip.\nFourteen Palestinians were killed and 81 wounded in more than six hours of fighting on the edge of the Bureij refugee camp.\nThe battle pitted Palestinians armed with assault rifles, anti-tank missiles and grenade launchers against Israeli troops firing from helicopters, tanks and rooftop sniper positions. Children chased tanks, throwing stones.\nAmong the dead were three boys, ages 8, 12 and 15.\nThe Israeli military said the purpose of the raid was to put Palestinian militants on the defensive and prevent them from carrying out attacks on Israelis. However, residents of Bureij said soldiers did not try to make arrests or search for arms caches.\nThe Palestinian Authority denounced the raid as "state terrorism" and urged the international community to intervene.\nPalestinians said Israeli soldiers were trying to draw out militants in what appeared to be a new tactic.\nArmed groups routinely exhort their members over mosque loudspeakers to confront approaching Israeli troops, despite vastly inferior weapons and considerable risk. Sunday was no exception.\nAfter the battle, a militant leader took the highly unusual step of appealing to his forces not to fall into the trap again.\n"The Palestinian people are now uniting in the trenches of resistance," said Islamic Jihad leader Mohammed al-Hindi, "but we also call on the sons of the resistance not to be dragged into battles forced upon us by the (Israeli) occupation."\nSunday's fighting was part of a recent rise in violence that has been attributed to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's proposal to withdraw from most, if not all, of Gaza and parts of the West Bank if there is no progress toward peace in coming months.\nEach side seems to be positioning itself to claim a withdrawal as a victory -- Israel by pounding the militants hard before a pullout, and the armed groups by stepping up attacks to create the impression they are chasing the Israelis out.\nIn the past week, Israeli helicopter gunships have struck twice, killing six militants and a boy in missile attacks in Gaza City. Saturday, three militant Palestinian groups sent bomb-laden jeeps in a suicide mission aimed at blowing up an Israeli checkpoint on the edge of Gaza. Six Palestinians were killed in the blasts and exchanges of fire.\nThe raid was the deadliest in Gaza since October 2002, when 19 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli operation in the Khan Younis refugee camp.\nThe dead -- 10 militants and four civilians -- were given a joint funeral. Tens of thousands of Palestians marched in the streets, and masked Hamas militants pledged revenge. Hamas has carried out dozens of suicide bombings against Israelis during 41 months of conflict.\nOne Hamas gunman told mourners the militants are sending a message to Sharon that "we are ready for confrontation."\nAvi Pazner, an Israeli government spokesman, said such raids help save Israeli lives. "Terrorism is pouring out of this refugee camp, and we have to stop it," Pazner said of Bureij.\nThere are concerns an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza could push the crowded, impoverished territory into chaos. Already, rival groups are vying for power, as the Palestinian Authority has lost much of its influence, and attacks on Palestinian officials are on the increase.\nIsrael's proposed unilateral action has drawn fire from the Palestinians and muted criticism from the United States. Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, who is to meet with U.S. officials in Washington, D.C., this week, is to assure them Israel would not withdraw from Gaza until after the U.S. presidential election in November, security officials have said.\nAlso Sunday, soldiers scuffled with Palestinians protesting the separation barrier Israel is building in the West Bank. Residents of the village of Beit Dukou, northwest of Jerusalem, tried to block bulldozers clearing land for the barrier.\nSoldiers threw stun grenades and chased and dragged villagers down an embankment. The residents say the barrier will cut them off from their fields. "The wall strangles the people completely," local council head Said Rayan said. About 1,500 people live in the village.\nIsrael insists it needs the barrier to keep Palestinian suicide bombers and other attackers out. However, the planned route of the complex of walls, fences, trenches, barbed wire and electronic sensors snakes back and forth into the West Bank to protect Jewish settlements and enclose Palestinian towns and villages, leading to Palestinian charges that the real purpose of the project is to confiscate West Bank land.
(03/04/04 5:27am)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- An Israeli helicopter strike killed three Hamas militants riding in a car Wednesday, the second such targeted attack in five days and a possible sign Israel is stepping up its campaign against militants ahead of a planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.\nTwo missiles slammed into the car, triggering a fire that bystanders tried to put out with sand and their jackets. One man, using a blanket, lifted a charred body out of the car and heaved it onto a stretcher.\nThe Israeli military said one of those killed, 24-year-old Tarad Jamal, was behind several roadside bombings and rocket attacks on Israelis. The other two were identified as Ibrahim Deri, 34, and Amar Hassan, 21.\nOn its Web site, Hamas indicated the three were about to carry out an attack. "The three martyrs were on a holy mission when the Zionist U.S.-made helicopters fired two missiles toward their vehicle," the statement said.\nHamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin said the Islamic militant group would keep up attacks against Israel. "The Palestinian people will continue their resistance despite this aggression," Yassin said.\nWednesday's strike, near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim, came just five days after Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a car in the same area, killing three militants of the Islamic Jihad group.\nThere has been some expectation Israel would step up its strikes against militants in Gaza ahead of a proposed withdrawal. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said he would dismantle most Israeli settlements in the strip and impose a boundary on the Palestinians if peace talks remain frozen in coming months.\nAvi Pazner, an Israeli government spokesman, said Israel would continue its campaign against militant groups even after a pullout.\nThe prospect of an Israeli withdrawal has also fueled internal Palestinian strife in Gaza, with armed gangs and corrupt members of the security forces jockeying for power.\nTuesday gunmen killed Khalil al-Zaben, an adviser to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Police have made no arrests, but a security official said privately he believed the attackers had ties to Arafat's Fatah movement. So far, Islamic militant groups, Arafat's main political rivals, have stayed out of the internal fighting.\nSharon has pledged to coordinate the Gaza pullout and other unilateral steps with the United States. A top Sharon aide, Dov Weisglass, met earlier this week with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.\nA senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday U.S. officials did not reject unilateral steps, but expressed concerns about security and humanitarian issues. U.S. officials have said Israeli actions should fit into the "road map" peace plan, which moves through three stages to a Palestinian state next year.\nTalks on the plan have been frozen for months, and neither side has carried out even its first provisions -- halt violence, dismantle militant groups and end construction in Jewish settlements.\nAlso Wednesday, Israeli troops in the West Bank killed a Palestinian who belonged to the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed gang with ties to Fatah. The army said the man, who had an assault rifle, approached troops during an arrest operation in the Tulkarem refugee camp, and they opened fire.
(02/12/04 4:26am)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israel sent troops and tanks into a densely populated neighborhood and a refugee camp Wednesday to search for Palestinian militants, setting off the bloodiest day of fighting in the Gaza Strip in 16 months. Fifteen Palestinians were killed and more than 50 were wounded.\nHamas, the militant Islamic group, responded with an ominous vow of retaliation, urging all its cells throughout Gaza and the West Bank to attack. Similar calls in the past have been followed within days -- sometimes hours -- by suicide bombings in Israel.\nThe fiercest fighting took place in the Shajaiyeh neighborhood of Gaza City, where dozens of youths stood in the streets watching the battle as gunfire whizzed by. At one point, a gunman picked up a young schoolboy by his backpack and whisked him out of the battle zone.\n"There was great resistance by armed cells in a very densely populated area," said Col. Yoel Strick, a division commander in the Gaza Strip. There were no Israeli casualties, he said.\nThe dead included a senior Hamas activist and the son of a Palestinian leader.\nThe stepped-up violence was linked by some analysts to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's proposals for a unilateral pullout from most of Gaza. With many Israelis, including the military's intelligence chief, concerned such a move might be viewed by Palestinians as a sign of weakness, analysts warned more military action in the territory could lie ahead.\nSenior military officers have said privately they believe there is a need to increase pressure on the Palestinians ahead of any withdrawal.\n"That is presumably what we saw today and what we will see more of," said Israeli analyst Yossi Alpher.\nThe army said it entered the Gaza City neighborhood to search for militants who fired rockets at nearby Jewish settlements. It said the fighting broke out after militants fired missiles at Israeli tanks.\nTwelve militants were killed and more than 40 were wounded, Palestinian doctors said. Among the dead were Mohammed Hilles, 18, son of Ahmed Hilles, the top leader of Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction in Gaza, and senior Hamas activist Hani Abu Skhaila.\nHamas said Abu Skhaila had survived two previous Israeli attempts to kill him, including a missile strike on his car in June in which he suffered shrapnel wounds.\nHamas said he had participated in several deadly attacks on Israelis, including a suicide bombing last month that killed four people at a border checkpoint.\nIn a separate raid, in the Rafah refugee camp along the Gaza-Egypt border, Israeli troops killed three Palestinians, including a militant, as they searched for tunnels used for arms smuggling. The forces demolished three houses and razed citrus and olive groves.\nThe fighting was the deadliest in Gaza since 19 Palestinians were killed in clashes in Khan Younis on Oct. 7, 2002.\nLater Wednesday, thousands of people marched in funeral processions for some of the militants. Masked men in military-style uniforms carried bodies on stretchers, while others fired machine guns into the air and called for revenge.\nAfter the fighting died down, four small rockets were fired into Israel, causing no injuries or damage, the army said. Later, militants fired a mortar at a Jewish settlement in Gaza, badly damaging a house and slightly injuring a settler.\nHamas, which has carried out dozens of suicide bombings in Israel during more than three years of fighting, said the rocket attacks were the first in what promised to be a painful reaction to the Israeli incursion.\nThe group's militant wing issued a statement calling on all its cells to carry out "huge martyrdom operations ... everywhere in Palestine," referring to suicide bombings in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel.\nHamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi posted a statement on the group's Web site promising "astounding retaliation."\nWhile Hamas routinely vows retaliation for Israeli attacks, it rarely issues such widespread calls to arms. In the past, such language has often been followed quickly by violence.\nPalestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said the Gaza incursion endangered efforts to revive long-stalled peace talks.\n"We believe that these killings must stop immediately if the peace process is to go forward and bring results," Qureia said in Rome after talks with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.\nAs part of his unilateral disengagement plan if peace talks fail, Sharon has talked of removing up to 17 of 20 Israeli settlements in Gaza and imposing a temporary boundary in the West Bank. Israel captured the two areas in the 1967 Mideast war.\nThe Gaza withdrawal plan has raised concerns in Israel that a pullout would be viewed by Palestinians as a reward for violence.\nAddressing these concerns, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz plans to keep troops stationed in the Gush Katif bloc of settlements in Gaza after a withdrawal, the Haaretz newspaper reported Wednesday.\nThe paper said Mofaz believes Gush Katif could be used to continue to carry out army operations against militants and as a "bargaining chip" in future talks with the Palestinians.
(01/15/04 5:40am)
EREZ CROSSING, Gaza Strip -- A Palestinian mother of two blew herself up Wednesday at the main crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip, killing three Israeli soldiers and a private guard and wounding seven other people.\nIt was believed to be the first time the Islamic militant group Hamas has sent a female suicide bomber, possibly signaling a change in tactics aimed at piercing Israeli security, which mainly focuses on male suspects.\nAn Israeli soldier was charged for the April shooting of a British activist who was protesting Israeli operations in Gaza. The 22-year-old activist, Tom Hurndall, died overnight in a London hospital after nine months in a vegetative state, and an Israeli military official said the charges against the soldier could be elevated to manslaughter.\nAfter Wednesday's attack, Israel ordered the closure for several days of the Erez Crossing. Thousands of Palestinian laborers pass each day through a network of fences and security checks at the crossing to go to jobs at an industrial area.\nThe dead were all Israeli, including three soldiers and a private guard, military sources said. The army said four of the wounded were Palestinians.\nThe bomber, identified as Gaza resident Reem Raiyshi, 22, told soldiers at the crossing point that she would set off a metal detector because she had an implant from surgery to repair a broken leg. She was then ushered to a special room for a security search, said Maj. Sharon Feingold, a military spokeswoman.\nA video made before the bombing shows Raiyshi wearing a traditional hijab head covering, holding an assault rifle and standing before two green Hamas flags as she declares her lifelong dream of becoming a suicide bomber.\n"I always wanted to be the first woman to carry out a martyr attack, where parts of my body can fly all over. That is the only wish I can ask God for," she said with a smile.\nRaiyshi's brother-in-law, Yusef Awad, said she had an 18-month-old daughter and a 3-year-old son. Raiyshi and her husband got in a fight with the rest of the family two months ago and had not been seen since, Awad said.\nHamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin said the use of a woman bomber was unique, but added that holy war "is an obligation of all Muslims, men and women."\nHamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, issued a joint claim of responsibility.\nIslamic Jihad, the other main Islamic fundamentalist group leading attacks against Israelis, and the secular Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade have used women for suicide attacks in the past. But Hamas, the largest group, has until now stayed away from the tactic.\nA Palestinian woman who identified herself only as Amena said she was waiting to get her permit renewed at the Erez crossing when four other Palestinian women entered an office ahead of her and the bomb went off.\n"I heard soldiers screaming. The blast was very strong and I saw one of the women, the last one who went into the room, was bleeding from her legs," she said.\nPalestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia declined to condemn the attack, saying that continued Israeli attacks and restrictions on the Palestinians are leading "to more escalation on both sides"
(10/22/03 5:31am)
NUSSEIRAT REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip -- The flag-wrapped bodies of seven Palestinian civilians whose deaths were blamed on an Israeli missile strike were carried through this shantytown Tuesday, with tens of thousands of mourners clamoring for revenge.\nThere were conflicting versions of what happened in the airstrike in the Nusseirat refugee camp on Monday night.\nThe Israeli military said helicopters fired two missiles at a car carrying Hamas militants and that two men inside were killed. It released a video showing two missiles hitting the car a minute apart with no one near the vehicle.\nThe video showed a crowd gathering around the car about two minutes after the second strike, and ended some 40 seconds later. The military said another 10 minutes were on video but refused to release it.\nA statement by Palestinian security said there were three missile hits, and that those killed were struck by shrapnel from a missile fired after they had gathered near the vehicle.\nSeven people were killed in Nusseirat on Monday night, including an 11-year-old boy and a doctor who came to treat the wounded, and some 70 were injured.\nDr. Ibrahim Musader, director of the main hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah, said those killed were hit by shrapnel from the missiles.\nAn AP reporter who reached the scene shortly after the attack saw several people with what appeared to be shrapnel wounds lying on stretchers and receiving emergency treatment from paramedics.\nMore than a dozen ambulances were seen rushing from Gaza City to the area of Nusseirat.\nWithin a half-hour of the missile strike, AP reporters saw dozens of wounded reaching the hospital in Deir al-Balah, some treated in the garden because there were no available beds.\nAmbulances were called in to transfer some of the wounded to larger hospitals in Gaza City.\nThe Nusseirat attack was one of five airstrikes in the Gaza Strip in what was one of the most intense single-day assaults with helicopters and warplanes in three years of fighting.\nThree more Palestinians were killed in the other strikes Monday.\nThe missile hits revived debate in Israel over targeted killings in crowded areas. Israel's vice premier, Ehud Olmert, told Israel Army Radio he considered the large numbers of civilian casualties "distressing," but that military strikes would continue, "especially in light of the murderous acts of terror groups."\nPalestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia called for international intervention, referring to the airstrikes as "ugly crimes." Qureia complained the United States is not intervening, saying he believes that this is a "dangerous indication of the U.S. government's intention to abandon" its role in peace efforts.\nThe Israelis said there would be no letup.\n"The Israeli military will continue to act to foil terror attacks, capture murderers and liquidate terror organizations," Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told parliament Monday.\nThe Israeli military said the Nusseirat incident began when a group of militants tried to sneak across a border fence from Gaza into Israel to carry out an attack. The military said the infiltrators were planning a suicide bombing inside Israel.\nTwo of the militants were killed by Israeli soldiers at the border and the others fled in a car and drove to nearby Nusseirat, Brig. Gen. Ruth Yaron, the Israeli army spokeswoman, told The Associated Press.
(10/16/03 5:49am)
BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip -- A remote-controlled bomb exploded under a U.S. diplomatic convoy Wednesday, ripping apart an armored van and killing three Americans in an unprecedented deadly attack on an official U.S. target.\nIn a strongly worded statement, President Bush blamed Palestinian officials for the attack, which wounded another American. "Palestinian authorities should have acted long ago to fight terror in all its forms," Bush said.\nPalestinian officials condemned the bombing and promised to help the investigation. But they will likely now come under intensified U.S. pressure to take action against militants.\nIf Palestinian militants were to blame, it could signal a dramatic change in strategy. While targeting Israeli soldiers and civilians for years, the main militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have not attacked U.S. officials -- apparently to avoid a harsh retribution from the Americans and the anger of Palestinian officials trying to work with Washington.\nBoth groups repeated their stance Wednesday that they don't attack Americans, and there was no claim of responsibility for the bombing.\nThe attack targeted a convoy of U.S. Embassy diplomats heading to Gaza to interview Palestinian candidates for a Fulbright scholarship, Bush said. The three dead and the wounded man were American security personnel working on contract with the embassy, said U.S. ambassador Dan Kurtzer.\nThe U.S. Embassy advised U.S. citizens to leave the Gaza Strip after the attack.\nPalestinian leader Yasser Arafat condemned the bombing as an "awful crime." The Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, called Secretary of State Colin Powell to express his condolence and promise swift action.\nAn FBI legal attache is investigating, the FBI said. A team of investigators who photographed the charred van was pelted with rocks by Palestinians and had to cut short the visit.\nMeanwhile, Israel announced orders to expel three Palestinian militants from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip. The decision came after it issued similar orders a day earlier against 15 other Palestinians -- raising criticism from the Palestinians and human rights group.