Clashes continue between the Israelis and Palestinians
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 3/26/2001

The Israeli soldiers opened their fire against unarmed Palestinians who demonstrated in Nablus on Sunday calling for lifting the siege imposed on the Palestinian areas and towns. The clashes resulted in wounding more 21 Palestinians and one Israeli army officer and one soldier were hit by the Israeli bullets.

The Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon criticized the fact- finding commission which seeks the Israeli practices against the Palestinians.

Eye-witnesses said the Israeli soldiers opened their machine- guns fire at a demonstration in Nablus which included 4,000 Palestinians while approaching the military barrier which closes the eastern entrance of the city.

The demonstrators, carrying Palestinian flags and led by Muslim and Christian clergymen and officials at the Palestinian authority, headed forward to the eastern entrance of the city, while chanting slogans calling for ending the Israeli occupations and for continued Palestinian Intifada.

On the other hand the Israeli radio admitted that one Israeli army officer, who is responsible for the settlements in the West Bank was wounded after he was exposed to fire near al-Fawara village, Nablus district while another settler was wounded as he was exposed to fire near Eitza settlement to the south of Nablus as he was in his car. He was taken to hospital by a helicopter.

The Israeli forces launched large scale breaking in campaigns in Toulkarem because of kidnapping an Israeli settler in a settlement near the city. The Palestinian police returned back the kidnapped settler ( David Haem) to Israel through the Liaison office in Toulkarem.

At the political level, the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon said that the UN facts finding commission is committing " historical fault" and that he had no choice but to meet with members of the committee to explain to them he opposes their work, claiming that agreeing such a committee is a historical fault because no body, as he claimed has the right to try Israel.

Sharon added he had informed the chairman of the committee, the US former Senator George Mitchel that works of the committee are considered wrong and not justified, noting that he opposes the committee's linking between what he called the eruption of acts of violence by the end of September 2000 in the Palestinian territories, to the visit he made to al-Aqsa mosque, and held Yasser Arafat responsible for the eruption and the continuity of the Intifada.

Meantime, the special budget committee of the defense affairs at the Israeli Knesset approved to provide an increase of USD half billion to the Israeli army in the preliminary budget for the war affairs for 2001.

The chairman of the said committee said he will ask for another increase in the budget in case the Intifada will continue, noting that the " situation is a sort of a state of war."

Previous Stories:
  One Palestinian killed, 36 wounded in clashes with Israelis   (3/24/2001)
  Palestinian killed in clashes, Sharon refuses commitment to previous agreements   (3/23/2001)
  One Palestinian officer, One child were killed in confrontation with Israelis   (3/22/2001)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search