Here is the smallest ray of hope, wrapped in a sad message that I hope turns out better than I fear!
Missing girl unites bitter foes
Palestinians, Israelis join search for Arab girl, 8
Matthew Kalman
The Ottawa Citizen
TULKARM, West Bank -- Palestinian gunmen in this West Bank town have declared a temporary ceasefire and joined forces with their bitter enemies in the Israeli army and nearby Israeli communities to search for an eight-year-old Arab girl missing since the weekend.
In a rare display of co-operation in one of the West Bank's most militant towns, Israelis and Palestinians combed buildings and surrounding countryside as fears increased for the welfare of Nuran Al-Karmi, a relative of Tulkarm's terror chief Raed Al-Karmi, assassinated by Israel a year ago.
"It's an encouraging sign that shows that despite all that's happening there is still a humanitarian angle that can't be ignored," said a prominent local Palestinian merchant. "We haven't seen Israeli civilians in the area almost since the beginning of the intefadeh."
He said the army had helped the family since the first day.>{?
"Many people here are moved by this humanitarian gesture in spite of their great anger at the Israeli army."
Nuran was reported missing Saturday evening. She was last seen earlier that day, when she was playing with other children near her home. Her family became worried that she had lost her way after leaving her home during the curfew.
Tulkarm, with a population of about 60,000, has been under Israeli military curfew since a gunman set out from the town last month and shot dead five people including a mother and her two children at Kibbutz Metzer, 35 kilometres to the north. The town has been a hotbed of Palestinian extremism throughout the two-year intifada and was the base of the suicide-bomb attack on the Park Hotel last March in which 29 Israelis at a religious Passover ceremony were killed.
On Saturday evening, Nuran's family notified the Palestinian Authority governor in Tulkarm of the girl's disappearance and asked him to organize a search. The governor immediately informed the Israeli army and local TV stations appealed for help, while Israelis from neighbouring towns volunteered to search the fields around the besieged town.
"The army came to us on that first night and took us out to search the town," said one of Nuran's uncles. "They gave us flashlights and said we should call on them if we needed any more help."
He said some members of the family had been given special permission to leave the town through the army roadblocks to extend the search into the countryside.
The Israeli army has conducted its own searches in the city and surrounding area to try to find the girl, but so far without success. As heavy rain swept the area and temperatures fell, dozens of volunteers from Jewish and Arab communities inside Israel joined the search using tractors from nearby kibbutz farms.
At a press conference yesterday, the governor said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had ordered his security forces to help with the search, and local gunmen imposed an unofficial ceasefire so that Israelis would feel safe searching the nearby countryside |
