Suicide Bombing in Gaza Strip
In Jenin, Families Bury the Dead
By IBRAHIM BARZAK
.c The Associated Press
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (April 19) - A Palestinian blew himself up in a car at a checkpoint Friday, lightly injuring two Israeli soldiers, and Israeli forces killed five Palestinians in exchanges of fire in an abrupt escalation of conflict in the Gaza Strip.
Islamic militants threatened to carry out more attacks in Israel.
In the West Bank, Israeli forces completed their withdrawal from the town of Jenin, allowing Palestinian families to collect their dead from temporary graves to give them proper farewells. In the town of Ramallah, two Palestinian children, ages nine and 14, were killed by army fire in separate incidents, Palestinian doctors said. The army had no comment.
The violence in Gaza ended the relative quiet there during Israel's three-week incursion into the Palestinian cities and towns in the West Bank.
The Israeli military spokesman said a suicide bomber detonated explosives in his car at an Israeli military checkpoint near the Kissufim crossing, killing himself and lightly wounding two Israeli soldiers. Local residents said the Israelis arrested three Palestinians and announced a curfew on loudspeakers.
Further south, Israeli troops moved briefly into Palestinian-controlled territory near the border with Egypt, scene of frequent clashes and incursions. Palestinians opened fire on Israeli troops, who pounded the area with heavy machine gun fire, witnesses said. Palestinian doctors said three Palestinian civilians were killed and six wounded by Israeli gunfire. Israeli military sources said that during a routine operation, Palestinians shot at soldiers, who returned the fire.
Also, the military said soldiers killed two armed Palestinians who tried to infiltrate the Netzarim Jewish settlement in Gaza. The militant Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the attempted raid.
Thousands of Palestinians paraded through Gaza City and Rafah for the hastily arranged funerals of the casualties and vowed revenge for their deaths. A masked activist of the Fatah organization of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said the Palestinians had a message for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon:
''You have opened the gates of hell and you will be burnt in its fire. Murder for murder, and destruction for destruction.''
In the West Bank town of Bethlehem, security forces arrested Khalid Tafish, described as a leader of the Islamic militant Hamas movement, and the second catch of a high-ranking Hamas official in two days. Another unidentified Hamas fighter was arrested in the same operation, the military said.
On Thursday, near the city of Nablus, the army caught Hussam Atef Ali Badran, an alleged military commander of Hamas who the army said was responsible for the deaths of more than 100 Israelis in some of the worst suicide bombings in the last year.
Also in Bethlehem, the standoff continued between Israelis and Palestinians who took refuge in the Church of the Nativity April 2. A meeting to negotiate a peaceful evacuation of about 200 gunmen and 50 clerics was canceled, with each side blaming the other.
The sound of gunfire and stun grenades could be heard late Thursday near the church, and smoke rose from the compound. The Israeli military said gunmen in the church opened fire, and soldiers responded. The military has banned reporters from the area.
The military said the withdrawal from Jenin was completed overnight, and Israeli forces took up positions just outside, preventing Palestinians from entering or leaving. Palestinians have demanded that Israel remove all its roadblocks. Palestinians said the tanks were still inside the zone off-limits to the Israelis under previous agreements. After the pullout, the military declared Jenin a closed military area and banned reporters from entering.
Palestinians security officials said the Israeli tanks rumbled out of the city and the ravaged refugee camp around 4 a.m. Residents heard some shooting, possibly from the withdrawing tanks, they said.
After daybreak, families came to hospitals to collect the bodies of relatives from temporary collective graves and give them proper funerals. Hospital officials said 42 bodies had been collected in Jenin.
A white-frocked medical worker in the Jenin refugee camp hospital packed the remains of Tariq Darwish, 27, in a plastic bag and placed it into a plastic-lined wooden coffin brought by his father.
Iyad Darwish said he spoke for the last time to his son, a Palestinian policemen, two days before he was killed.
''He said he was in the camps fighting with his friends. We told him to get out but he didn't want to leave the fight,'' said the grizzled man as he sat in the front seat of the ambulance and wiped his tears with the edge of his head scarf.
Touring the Jenin camp Thursday, U.N. Mideast envoy Terje Roed-Larsen was harshly critical of the Israelis, though he would not take sides on the hottest disagreement - Palestinian charges that Israeli soldiers massacred hundreds of civilians in the camp, while Israel maintained that most of the dead were gunmen or bombers.
Roed-Larsen said about 300 buildings were destroyed and 2,000 people were left homeless in the Israeli operation to capture or kill armed militants.
In other developments Friday, Israel said its forces moved into the West Bank town of Qalqiliya before dawn, describing the operation as a pinpoint mission, not occupation of the town. A military spokesman said the troops quickly withdrew.
Palestinian sources said about 10 Israeli tanks entered the city center and surrounded two houses to search for suspects on the Israeli wanted list. The men were not found, and the troops left the city after four hours.
Inside Israel, a Palestinian was shot dead after he tried to stab a border policemen near the Israeli Arab town of Uum al-Fahm, the military spokesman said.
President Bush, speaking in Washington, said Thursday that Sharon was keeping his promise to withdraw and was on schedule.
''He gave me a timetable and he met the timetable,'' Bush said. He dismissed assessments that Secretary of State Colin Powell's Mideast mission, which ended Wednesday without a cease-fire, had failed, and said the United States would continue to pursue a truce.
In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for a ''robust'' international peace force to stop Palestinian-Israeli violence, but Israel turned down the idea.
AP-NY-04-19-02 1130EDT
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. |
