Israelis Gun Down Palestinian Toddler
Agencies
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 8 May 2003 — An 18-month-old Palestinian toddler
was killed by Israeli Army fire in the Gaza Strip yesterday, as the Palestinian
prime minister flatly rejected Israel’s new condition for peace talks.
The disagreement over the fate of Palestinian refugees raises new doubts about
whether a US-backed peace plan can be implemented. Israel now insists the
Palestinians scrap a demand for the “right of return” of the refugees without further
discussion, even though the peace plan stipulates the refugee issue is a subject
for future negotiations.
In the Gaza town of Khan Younis, 18 months old Elian Sa’ed Al-Bashiti was hit in
the head by a bullet and later died at a local hospital, doctors said. Palestinians
said Israeli soldiers fired at a neighborhood in Khan Younis, and that the boy was
in his house when he was hit.
Army spokesman Jacob Dalal said soldiers at an outpost guarding Israeli
settlements had come under fire from Palestinians and returned fire.
Later, another Palestinian was shot and killed in Gaza. Hamas said Ahmed
Gouda, 18, was on an “operation” in northern Gaza when he was shot dead,
apparently by Israeli soldiers. The area is close to Jewish settlements, targets of
repeated infiltration attempts. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
In the West Bank yesterday, a Hamas fighter was killed in a mysterious
explosion in a house in Zawata, a village near the city of Nablus. Hamas blamed
Israel, but local firefighters said the blast went off inside the house, ruling out an
Israeli missile attack.
Israel has killed dozens of suspected fighters in targeted attacks in the past 31
months of fighting. However, a number of fighters also died while handling
explosives that went off prematurely.
Meanwhile, disagreements continued to plague the new road map plan even
before its first stage.
In an interview broadcast late Tuesday on Palestine TV, Mahmoud Abbas said he
could not drop the Palestinian demand for the right of return of refugees and their
descendants — about 4 million people — to their former homes in what is now
Israel.
Also yesterday, Abbas gave a key aide broader powers to curb anti-Israel
violence, loosening Yasser Arafat’s security grip in line with demands by
international peace mediators.
An internal memorandum said Abbas authorized Cabinet minister Mohammed
Dahlan to restructure the Palestinian Authority’s Interior Ministry.
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