Confrontations in occupied lands escalate, 600 arrested
Confrontations between Palestinian citizens and Israeli soldiers in Bethlehem, Ramalla and Hebron have increased.
Palestinian youths in the town of Hebron threw several bombs at Israeli soldiers. In Ramalla, youths hurled bottles at an Israeli settler and an Israeli military vehicle.
In retaliation, Israeli soldiers fired live and rubber bullets, wounding a number of Palestinians, Israel Radio said on July 14.
On July 13 two Molotov cocktails were thrown at an Israeli military vehicle driving on Kesofin road in Gaza strip, Israeli radio said.
Meantime, Israeli forces have arrested more than 600 Palestinians in several towns including Btantekja.
Israeli radio said that the Palestinians were arrested because they don't have official permits from Israeli military authorities.
Meanwhile the escalation of daily confrontations and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli settlers and occupation forces was the main topic dealt with by the British "Independent" newspaper.
As well as the fatal shelling, two Israeli warplanes fired two missiles at Kfar Melki in Iqlim alToufah without causing injury. However phosphorous artillery rounds started a small blaze.
Bassliyeh, another village in eastern Sidon, was also hit without any resulting injuries. Laiqa Marmar, 70, a Palestinian and her son Ahmed, 30, were both killed while Laiqa's 12 year-old daughter Ahlam was wounded in the bombardment of Berti. The bodies and the injured girl were taken to Sidon's Hammoud hospital.
Ahlam Marmar, hysterical at having seen her mother and brother killed in front of her, told reporters, "My mother and brother have been killed. Don't take pictures of me, take pictures of the massacres."
The SLA-run Voice of the South said that the shelling was prompted by the wounding of the two militiamen.
Diplomatic sources said on July 14 that Lebanese foreign minister Faress Boueiz had lodged a complaint over the civilian deaths with the five-nation monitoring committees. This brings to two the number of complaints filed by the government to the committee in the past week. The first complaint was provoked by the death of 70 year-old farmer Ahmad Swaidan who was killed in his village, Adsheet, on July 12.
The bombardment of Berti, a mixed Muslim and Christian village located outside the normal areas of retaliation by Israel and the SLA, apparently fulfils the threats made last month by Antoine Lahd, the commander of the SLA, who warned that villages east of Sidon would be targeted by his artillery if his militiamen continued to be attacked by the resistance.
Three weeks ago, the SLA fired illumination shells at the Christian village
of Maghdushe, near Sidon, damaging the house of a local priest. But the
shelling of Berti on July 14 was the first time that the SLA have responded
so swiftly and directly to an assault on one of their units.
The Jezzine pocket falls under the authority of the SLA. Israel claims to have no jurisdiction in the area. However, the SLA is heavily controlled by the Israelis and it is unlikely that the bombardment of Berti and Bassliyeh would have been allowed without prior Israeli approval.
In a report read by the B.B.C., the newspaper correspondent in occupied Palestine, Robert Fisk, said that the stalemate in the talks started since the Likud-led Netanyahu government assumed power and since Netanyahu proposed his new settlement policy.
The newspaper said confrontations between the Israelis and Palestinians are inevitable, and consequently Netanyahu will retaliate by occupying more lands governed by the Palestinian authority.
The daily confrontations in occupied Palestine illustrate the states of rage and despair the Palestinians have reached, the newspaper concluded.
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