Israeli forces break into Rafah, destroy three houses
Palestine-Israel, Military, 5/16/2002

The Israeli occupation forces on Wednesday incurred by tanks and bulldozers Rafah area to the south of Gaza and demolished three houses and wounded three Palestinian women, leveled tens of arable lands in al-Mawasi area and declared Rafah as a military zone as a tunnel linking Rafah to the Palestinian territories was discovered.

The Israeli forces arrested two Palestinians in Hebron and near Morak settlement in Gaza under the charge of resisting the occupation, while the International Solidarity Movement in New York announced that 9 of its members held by the Israeli forces in al-Ramla prison are observing a hunger strike in protest of the Israeli practices against them.

Meantime, the chairman of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Yasser Arafat said that Israel seeks to violate the provisional agreements signed with the Palestinians. He announced his commitment to achieve a permanent agreement. He said before the Palestinian legislative council in Ramullah that the Palestinians will continue struggle in order to found an independent Palestinians state and that the Palestinian internal situation and political system needed to be reconsidered comprehensively; quick preparations for the elections and reviewing the PA's security and administrative formations.

On the other hand, the press official at the Palestinian Authority Yasser Abd Rabbu said that the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon is making of himself a guardian to the Palestinian people and PA and wants to decide the meaning of reforms and its content, claiming the need of introducing reforms in the structure of the Palestinian Authority.

Well-informed European sources in Brussels said that the European states on Wednesday did not reach a legal solution to received the 13 exiled Palestinians who are existed in Cyprus in the framework of a European initiative to break the siege imposed in the church of Nativity in Bethlehem.

The EU- 15 member states ambassadors who met at the request of the European foreign ministers left the meeting hall without completing this file, and agreed to resumed the talks to this effect today ( Thursday).

Previous Stories:
  Majority of Israelis support Sharon on Palestinian state   (5/15/2002)
  Israeli human rights organization considers settlements illegal   (5/15/2002)
  Three Palestinians killed by Israeli occupation forces   (5/15/2002)
  Amnesty International: Israeli occupation forces torture and mistreats Palestinians   (5/14/2002)
  Two Palestinians killed, Hamas vows continued resistance   (5/14/2002)
  Church of Nativity evacuees to leave for Cyprus, Israel prepares incursion in Rafah, attacking Gaza   (5/10/2002)

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