Israeli Occupation Troops Kill Palestinian Resistance Man in Gaza

11/08/2002| IslamWeb

Israeli occupation soldiers killed a Palestinian Resistance man in the Gaza Strip on Sunday just hours after U.S.-Palestinian security talks in Washington that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat called "very positive." In other confrontations an armed Palestinian infiltrated the Jewish settlement of Mehora in the West Bank, killing a woman and wounding her husband before Israeli occupation soldiers shot the attacker dead.

In renewed U.S. efforts to end more than 22 months of Middle East bloodshed, Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razzak al-Yahya met CIA director George Tenet outside Washington on Saturday to discuss reorganizing Palestinian security forces.

Proposed reforms include a merger of the different branches of the Palestinian Authority's security services in a bid to make them more accountable and boost their ability to rein in Resistance activists.

"The talks were very positive," Arafat told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah about meetings Yahya held with Tenet on Saturday and earlier discussions with Secretary of State Colin Powell and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

In his first public acceptance of foreign involvement in reform of his security apparatus, Arafat said on Friday that U.S., Egyptian and Jordanian officials would oversee the changes.

The talks were the highest-level meetings between the United States and the Palestinian Authority since President Bush sought to sideline Arafat in June and called for Palestinian reforms and democratization.

In his comments on Sunday, Arafat did not appear too optimistic about the opportunity for peace.

"The Israeli leadership is looking only for more escalation for its military plans and they don't want to achieve any peace," he said.

GAZA GUNBATTLE

The Gaza Strip gun battle began on Sunday after an Israeli civilian repairing an Israeli security fence was wounded by Palestinian fire. Occupation army sources said their soldiers killed a Resistance man.

Palestinian witnesses and security forces said Israeli tanks had rolled into position near the site as occupatintroops searched homes and cars traveling along the north-south artery of the seaside strip.

Ten Palestinians were detained, four of them intelligence officers, the witnesses said.

The Resistance group Hamas claimed responsibility for the earlier attack on the Mehora settlement, in the West Bank's Jordan Valley, late on Saturday night.

PHOTO CAPTION

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (R) speaks to Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres (L) during the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on August 11,2002. A Palestinian gunman killed an Israeli woman and wounded her husband in a West Bank settlement late on Saturday, while in Washington the head of the CIA and the Palestinian interior minister discussed security reforms. (Nir Elias/Reuter