Abbas resignation and the roadmap, another victims of Israel's unending and unrestrained brutality
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 9/6/2003

Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas submitted his resignation to President Yasser Arafat after Palestinian Parliamentarians viewed his accomplishment as having amounted to nothing, whether regarding freeing the Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli jails, or halt its assassination policy, or Israel's building of a wall of separation on Palestinian lands, the Palestinian Media Center reported.

The US and Israel, in typical fashion, had both strongly supported Abbas against Arafat, yet set up the condition for his failier by forcing him to undermine Palestinian national unity by having him fight the Palestinian opposition and resistance -- what they like to call "terrorists." The Palestinian President Arafat remains under Israeli siege since several years, under very harsh conditions.

Meantime, Israel, the occupying power of Palestinian lands, yesterday continued its policy of killing and destruction against the Palestinians. Israel killed a military leader at the Islamic resistance movement ( Hamas ) in a raid in the West Bank directing another new blow to the Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas who has been launching a fierce political battle with those opposing him.

One Israeli soldier was killed and four wounded in this operation which took place in Nablus and ended when the occupation soldiers detonated a residential building where Hamas member Muhammad Hanbali was hiding. The explosion resulted in displacing 28 families living in 15 apartments.

The occupation forces said that special commandos forces raided the building to detain Hanbali who was hiding inside it, and during the clashes Hanbali was able to kill an Israeli soldier and wounding other four, one of them is in a critical health condition. This operation also resulted in detaining three Palestinians.

The commander of the occupation forces in the West Bank Ghadi Ashnakout said that the aim of the operation was to "freeze Hanbali's movement," who has been pursued since two years. Hanbali is described as the leader of Hamas in north West Bank. Israel claims that he is responsible for the killing of scores of Israelis in resistance operations. His body was found together with a Klashinkov machine-gun and a pistol.

Hanbali's family said that their son ( 27 year old) was preparing for a Master in industrial engineering at al-Najah university in Nablus The occupation forces used missiles in destroying the 7- flour building, 6 hours after the end of the armed fighting, leaving more than 100 persons as homeless.

The Palestinian authority denounced this operation and considered it as a grave escalation. The Palestinian minister Yasser Abed Rabbu accused Israel of destroying peace efforts and working to undermine the efforts of the Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas and undermining the roadmap.

Yesterday's raid was the most recent among a series of raids launched by the Israeli occupation forces against Hamas since August that resulted in killing 11 activists and 5 passersby in 6 missile raids in Gaza.

Previous Stories:
  Failure of efforts to settle differences inside the Palestinian authority   (9/4/2003)
  Three Palestinians murdered by Israel; continued failed efforts to undermine Arafat   (9/3/2003)
  One Palestinian killed, 25 wounded in an Israeli raid against Gaza   (9/2/2003)
  BBC: Solana rejects Israeli demand to cut relations with Arafat   (9/1/2003)
  Israel wounds 16 Palestinians in Nablus, Palestinian authority freezes social organizations assets   (8/29/2003)
  Two Islamic bodies slam authorizing extremist Jews into al-Aqsa mosque   (8/28/2003)

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