Six Palestinians killed, Israel mocks Europe, Arafat refuses to leave to Gaza
Palestine-Israel, Military, 4/26/2002

Six Palestinians were shot on Thursday at a time when the Israeli forces continued incursion and breaking in operations in the Palestinian cities and villages in the West Bank and Gaza.

More than 20 Israeli tanks and armored vehicles on Thursday stormed several Palestinian areas in Hebron and carried out an inspection campaign for the houses.

A booby trapped car has blown near an Israeli military barrier on the ring- road linking Jerusalem to Eisteyoun settlement. An Israeli military car was exposed to a fire near al-Jithmaneyah church in Jerusalem. The Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon renewed his defiance of the international will and the repeated calls made to halt his aggression against the Palestinians.

Sharon's political advisor Dani Eyalon announced that Israel will not withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories until after completing its military operations.

For his part, the commander of the Israeli military operations in the West Bank and Gaza Gen. Shabhar Eyalon admitted the failure of the Israeli attack in eliminating the Palestinian Intifada. He added that the Israeli forces are still on alert for fears of operations against Israeli targets.

During his meeting on Thursday with the ambassadors of the European Union EU accredited to Israel, the Israeli defense minister Benjamin Bin Aliazer said that the Palestinians attempt to carry out operations against Israel continue despite the hard blow dealt against the Palestinian Intifada by Israel.

In the political context, the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon met on Thursday with the official in charge of foreign relations at the European Union Javier Solana in Jerusalem.

The Hebrew language Israeli radio said that Sharon renewed his rejections to what he had called the unbalanced European interventions, accusing the EU member states of being biased to Israel. The radio said that Solana repeated the care of the European Union to play a positive role in the international efforts aiming at alleviating tension in the region and pushing sides concerned to the table of negotiations.

On the other hand, the Palestinian authority refused the proposal in which Sharon expressed his readiness to permit Arafat to leave his besieged headquarters in Ramullah to settle in Gaza, under the condition not to be accompanied by any of the Palestinians wanted by Israel.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Oreikat said that Sharon's offer is rejected in spirit and content, stressing that Sharon's statements reveal his real intention to reoccupy the West Bank, intensify settlement, confiscate the territories and perpetuate the occupation.

Oreikat stressed that according to the signed agreements, the West Bank and Gaza are one geographical unit that Israel can not change.

He called on the international community to realize the fact that Sharon's scheme aims at destroying the Palestinian authority, reoccupying the West Bank and converting Gaza into a huge prison. He stressed the need of Israel's implementation of UN Security Council resolutions especially resolution 1402 which called for an immediate and unconditional Israeli withdrawal from the re-occupied Palestinian territories.

In an interview issued on Thursday with the New York Times, the Israeli prime minister said that Arafat's acceptance of this proposal will prove that he is ready to put an end to what he had called violence.

Concerning the Israeli aggression against the Palestinians, the Palestinian Ahmad Bashir was killed and other four were wounded in the clashes with the Israeli occupation army which incurred on Thursday at dawn in Hebron.

Palestinian sources said that more than 20 tanks backed by bulldozers and armored vehicles, 200 soldiers broke into Hebron after imposing curfew and started a mopping up and inspection operation and a large scale detention campaign in the city.

The Palestinian sources indicated that the shot Palestinian is a member of the Palestinian police "force no. 17". The Palestinian sources said that the Israeli army also broke into Saeer and Sweif towns, Hebron district and carried out vast detention acts and occupied several houses for the Palestinians and converted them to military centers.

A booby trapped car went off on Thursday at an Israeli military barrier on the ring- road linking Jerusalem to the nearby settlements of Ghoushe Eitesyoun.

The Israeli radio said that the can was blown off upon its arrival at the Israeli check point. One Israeli army member opened fire at the care and this resulted in killing its driver, while trying to get out of it.

Four more Palestinians were killed near Kfar Daroum settlements in Gaza. When the four youths were approaching the settlement a violent confrontation took place before an israeli tank opened fire at them to death.

The Israeli forces also arrested a nurse working in a Palestinian ambulance near Qalqilya after an Israeli military barrier stopped the car and arrested its team for several hours before permitting it to continue its own way, carrying several wounded Palestinians who were hit by the Israeli bullets earlier.

The Israeli occupation forces arrested more than 20 Palestinians including 9 from Majd al-Kroum village in the Galilee of the territories of 1948 and four in Hebron and seven in various villages in the West Bank and Gaza.

The Palestinian youth Raed al-Khatib who works in the Palestinian Authority national security department was killed while exchanging fire with the Israeli forces in Bethlehem in Gaza.

Earlier, member of al-Aqsa group Issam al-Jawabera was killed after he was hit in the "building complex" adjoining the church of Nativity.

Previous Stories:
  UN fact-finding mission to arrive in Middle East on Saturday   (4/25/2002)
  UNSC can try Israeli generals for war crimes   (4/25/2002)
  European MPs: Israel committed massacre in Jenin   (4/25/2002)
  Israel threatens to invade Gaza, 6 Palestinians shot, builds a settlement   (4/25/2002)
  Israeli forces continue brutal operations of breaking in, detention, execution   (4/24/2002)
  Sharon tightens siege on Palestinians   (4/22/2002)

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