Israel Demolishes 2 Suspects' Homes

13/08/2002| IslamWeb

HIGHLIGHTS: Hamas & Jihad Reject a PA Proposal to Stop Attacks against Israel||Expulsions against International and Humanitarian Law, Says Arafat||Israeli-Palestinian Talks to Resume Wednesday|| STORY: Israel demolished the homes of two Palestinian Resistance activist suspects Tuesday and prepared to expel three relatives of Palestinian bombers, intensifying efforts to prevent attacks by targeting assailants' families

In the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, a spokesman for the Islamic Resistance group Hamas said it reserved the right to continue bombings and shooting attacks on Israelis, signaling the failure of talks among Palestinian factions on stopping attacks.

Last month, Israel began targeting the families of Palestinian assailants in hopes of deterring future attacks. Since mid-July, troops have demolished 20 homes of attackers, including two buildings that were destroyed early Tuesday. Late Monday, an occupation army court also approved the expulsion of three relatives of bombers from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafa, commenting on the expulsions, said "it is a crime that cannot be accepted, that is against international and humanitarian law."

Human rights activists argue that demolitions and expulsions constitute collective punishment and do not deter future attacks.

Such measures "are not only immoral and cruel and violate the Geneva Conventions, but they will bring about the opposite result, the creation of more bombers," said Dan Yakir, head of the Israeli Civil Rights Association.

The houses destroyed Tuesday were in the town of Dahariya and the village of Doha, both in the southern West Bank. The Dahariya house belonged to a Palestinian suspected of firing on occupation soldiers in the southern city of Beersheva, killing two. The Doha house belonged to a bomber who blew himself up in May in Rishon Letzion, a city south of Tel Aviv, killing two bystanders.

In Doha, troops detonated explosives in a huge blast that sent sparks showering into the night sky. The occupants of the house stood nearby watching. Relatives helped support one woman to prevent her from falling as she cried.

The expulsion order against the three relatives of bombers was to take effect Tuesday. Defense lawyers said they would appeal to the Supreme Court.

The decision to send the three to Gaza marked the first time a legal body has ruled that Palestinians suspected of involvement in attacks can be expelled.

Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a senior aide to Arafat, called for international intervention to stop the expulsions. "This will not help calm the situation," Abu Rdeneh said. "The results of such a step will be the destruction of international and Arab efforts to help the peace in the region."

The three Palestinians are Intisar and Kifah Ajouri, sister and brother of Ali Ajouri, who was accused of handing belts with explosives over to suicide bombers, and Abdel Nasser Asidi, brother of a Hamas activist who is suspected of killing several Israelis.

Israel charges that Intisar Ajouri sewed an explosive belt for a suicide bomber. She told the military court that she didn't have anything to do with the bombing and didn't know how to sew.

The Israeli occupation army recently killed Ali Ajouri and demolished the family home in the Askar refugee camp near Nablus.

A ruling by Israel's Supreme Court could break legal ground if it approves the government's decision to expel Palestinians. The government had originally decided to expel 19 relatives in the Ajouri family but Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein ruled that only those directly involved in attacks can be expelled.

In May, after a siege at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem at the end of a large-scale Israeli incursion into the West Bank, 26 Palestinians were taken from Bethlehem to Gaza and 13 others were deported, but this was done under an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and was not tested in Israeli courts.

Israel has tried in vain to stop a wave of bomb attacks during the two-year Palestinian uprising. More than 250 people have been killed in 75 suicide attacks since the fighting erupted in September 2000.

In Gaza, meanwhile, a Hamas spokesman, Ismail Abu Shanab, said that "the Palestinian people are determined to continue resistance until the end of occupation."

The remarks signaled that recent efforts by Arafat's Fatah movement and other Palestinians to persuade Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group to stop attacks on Israeli civilians have failed.

ISRAEL PALESTINIAN TALKS TO RESUME WEDNESDAY

Meanwhile, Israel's public Radio announced that Israel will resume Wednesday its talks with a Palestinian delegation.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres is to lead these talks, and will meet, among others, the Palestinian delegation that went on an official visit to Washington last week.

That group, led by chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat, met Thursday with US Defence Secretary Colin Powell and US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and Saturday with Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director George Tenet.

The United States said Monday it hoped the Washington meetings would lead to rapid progress between Palestinians and Israelis, especially on the security track.

Israeli media said that at Monday's meeting of the parliamentary foreign affairs and defence committee, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he wanted to pursue his policy of contacts with Palestinian officials, notably with newly appointed finance minister Salam Fayad.

PHOTO CAPTION

Residents of the West Bank town of Hebron remove belongings from the house of Ibrahim Saouw Monday Aug. 5, 2002. Saouw was the Palestinian Resistance man involved in the gunfight with Israeli occupation forces on Sunday which claimed the lives of 3 people including Saouw. Israel's Supreme Court on Tuesday denied the request by 43 Palestinian families whose homes are slated for demolition to give them 48 hours before their houses were demolished. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)
- Aug 06 6:37 AM