Palestinians strike back … at extremists
Associated Press
Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip — Hundreds of residents of Beit Hanoun burned tires and blocked the main road Tuesday in a rare burst of anger at extremists who have prompted Israeli incursions by firing rockets from the town at Israeli targets.
Israeli troops withdrew from Beit Hanoun earlier Tuesday, after a five-day takeover during which they flattened orchards, demolished 15 homes, knocked over garden walls, tore up streets and damaged the sewage, water and electricity systems.
The Israeli military said much of the destruction, especially of homes and orchards, was aimed at depriving extremists firing rockets of cover.
In an unusual protest, about 600 Beit Hanoun residents blocked a main thoroughfare with trash cans, rocks and burning tires to show their anger at the extremists and Palestinian Authority officials.
“They (the militants) claim they are heroes,” Mohammed Zaaneen, 30, a farmer, said as he carried rocks into the street. “They brought us only destruction and made us homeless. They used our farms, our houses and our children ... to hide.”
The Israeli pullback came despite five terror bombings that killed 12 Israelis in 48 hours and endangered a U.S.-backed Mideast peace initiative. The move suggested that Israel is holding off on large-scale retaliation for now, amid international concern that new strikes would further weaken the new Palestinian Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas.
U.S. President George W. Bush called Mr. Abbas on Tuesday to underscore the need for both Palestinians and Israelis to fight terror and resume peace negotiations, the White House said. It was their first conversation since Abbas took office on April 30.
Mr. Abbas is seen as instrumental in implementing the so-called “road map” to peace, a three-stage prescription for ending violence and setting up a Palestinian state by 2005.
Mr. Abbas has said, however, that he will not launch a crackdown on militias — a crucial step in the first phase — until Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon accepts the plan.
Mr. Sharon has refused to do so, saying he wants to discuss his objections with Mr. Bush. A Bush-Sharon meeting had been scheduled for Tuesday, but Mr. Sharon postponed a trip to Washington indefinitely because of the bombings.
During the Israeli takeover, eight Palestinians were killed in clashes — four gunmen and four teensagers. Three of the teens had been throwing stones at Israeli tanks when they were shot by troops.
Israeli troops have raided Beit Hanoun seven times in the past 32 months of fighting in an effort to stop the firing of homemade Qassam rockets from Beit Hanoun at Israeli border towns.
The Israeli-Palestinian deadlock has left the field to the extremists. In the past, the Islamic radical groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have stepped up attacks whenever there was increased hope of progress toward peace.
An Islamic Jihad leader in the West Bank said extremists need no special incentive to carry out attacks.
“It’s all-out war,” Sheik Bassam Sadi said. “We will only stop if we feel our people are getting tired.”
In the latest bombing, a Palestinian woman blew herself up at a back entrance of a shopping mall in the northern Israeli town of Afula as she approached security guards checking shoppers. The blast killed three Israelis, including a guard, and wounded 47.
Islamic Jihad and the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, an extremist splinter group of Fatah, each said they were responsible. The woman apparently was recruited by al-Aqsa, while Islamic Jihad, which gets money from Iran, provided the funding, militia members said.
Al-Aqsa’s involvement proved particularly embarrassing for Mr. Abbas, a senior Fatah official. The militia, founded by Fatah supporters at the outbreak of fighting, consists of bands of gunmen operating without central directive. Some militiamen have said they would resist Mr. Abbas’s call to lay down arms.
He has said he wants to disarm the extremist groups through dialogue, not force — an approach that Mr. Sharon has brushed aside, saying he wants to see arrests and weapons sweeps.
Mr. Abbas, who took office April 30, issued a strong condemnation of the Afula bombing, saying it “contradicts our moral values and tradition and only feeds into the hatred of the two peoples.” Israeli’s military operations “contribute to the surge of violence,” Mr. Abbas added.
The latest string of attacks began Saturday evening, just before a Sharon-Abbas meeting, the first Israeli-Palestinian summit since the outbreak of fighting.
Hamas bombers struck in the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday, twice in Jerusalem on Sunday, and in the Gaza Strip on Monday morning, killing a total of nine Israelis and wounding 23.
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