Israel Fires on Jenin Market Killing a Palestinian 7-Year Old Girl, a Man & Injuring Dozens Others

21/06/2002| IslamWeb

HIGHLIGHTS: Palestinians Mistakenly Think Curfew Has Been Lifted||Death Toll Amongst Palestinians Climbs to at Least 6 & An Israeli Settler is Seriously Wounded Near Beersheba in Gaza||Arafat Now Reportedly Accepts Clinton Peace Plan|| STORY: Israeli occupation forces fired on a market in the West Bank city of Jenin Friday, killing two people and wounding dozens after Palestinians mistakenly thought a curfew had been lifted, Palestinian witnesses said.

Ambulances raced to a local hospital, where officials said the number of casualties overwhelmed them.

"People thought the curfew was no longer on. They got hungry and wanted bread, so they went to the market to buy some. The Israelis opened fire," Jenin's acting governor, Haider Irsheid, told Reuters.

Hospital officials said a seven-year-old girl and the deputy director of the city's department of education were killed and dozens of people were wounded. Israeli troops pushed into Jenin, a city it describes as a "terrorists' nest" on Tuesday, after a suicide bombing killed 19 people on a Jerusalem bus.

DEATH TOLL AMONGST PALESTINIANS AT LEAST 6 & AN ISRAELI SETTLER IS SERIOUSLY WOUNDED IN GAZA

Earlier Friday, a total of four Palestinians were reported killed. Palestinians said a 14-year-old boy was killed when the Israeli army blew up a building in Jenin. The Israeli side said the occupation troops had detonated a bomb factory.

Three other Palestinian fatalities were reported in the Gaza Strip, where border policemen shot and killed an assailant who threw grenades at them at the Erez junction, which is at the entrance to the strip. Two Palestinian workers were also killed in that shooting.

Also in Gaza Strip, an Israeli soldier was seriously wounded by an anti-tank RPG (rocket propelled grenade) near the Netzarim settlement.

The Associated Press reported that occupation troops opened fire at a group of Palestinian children and an AP reporter and photographer on a Gaza road as soldiers tore down a Palestinian police post. No one was hurt.

ARAFAT NOW ACCEPTS CLINTON PEACE PLAN

An Israeli interviewer quoted Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on Friday as saying he now accepts a peace plan put forward 18 months ago by then-U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Acceptance of the proposal -- made by Clinton a month before leaving office -- would represent a fundamental change in Arafat's position as the plan does not include a right of return of Palestinian refugees to their old homes in Israel.

Asked if he accepted the plan Clinton charted in December 2000 after peace talks between Arafat and then-Israeli leader Ehud Barak at Camp David, Maryland, collapsed in July, Arafat told Akiva Eldar of the Ha'aretz newspaper: "Yes, I do."
Eldar provided Reuters with quotes from the interview, which Ha'aretz will publish in full on Tuesday.

Israel and the Palestinians had said they accepted Clinton's plan with reservations, but it never took off against the
backdrop of a Palestinian uprising and the election of right-winger Ariel Sharon as prime minister in February 2001.

After Clinton left office in January 2001, President Bush and Israel said they regarded his plan as having expired.

But the Palestinians have said any new peace negotiations must start at the point at which they ended, with a proposal on the table for a Palestinian state in some 95 percent of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

PHOTO CAPTION

An Israeli interviewer quoted Palestinian President Yasser Arafat Friday as saying he now accepts a peace plan put forward 18 months ago by then-President Bill Clinton. Acceptance of the proposal -- made by Clinton a month before leaving office -- would represent a fundamental change in Arafat's position as the plan does not include a right of return of Palestinian refugees to their old homes in Israel. Arafat is shown during a meeting with U.N. envoy to the Middle East Terje Roed-Larsen in the West Bank City of Ramallah June 19, 2002. (Osama Silwadi/Reuter