Eid al-Fitr Festival Begins Amid Mideast Bloodshed

26/05/2001| IslamWeb

JERUSALEM (Islamweb & News Agencies ) - Israeli helicopters rocketed Palestinian security targets in northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, as fresh violence rumbled on after the end of a U.S. peace mission and ushered in the start of the Eid al-Fitr holiday.
Palestinian police said two attack helicopters fired four missiles at a Palestinian police station and preventive security office in Jabaliya refugee camp. There were no injuries.
The Israeli occupation army claimed the strikes were in response to a Palestinian mortar attack on one of its occupation army posts.
The shelling and helicopter raid followed a week of bloody tit-for-tat attacks in which Palestinian militants killed 10 Israelis in a bus ambush in response to Israeli killings of Palestinians, and Israel retaliated with F-16 air raids.
The escalating violence, some of the most intense in an uprising in which more than 1,000 people have died, has derailed a peace mission by U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni -- the first intensive Middle East peace effort by President Bush.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has come under intense Israeli and U.S. pressure to clamp down on the organizations that have killed scores of Israelis in a wave of Resistance attacks in recent months.
Arafat decided after the ambush last week to shut offices of Resistance groups. On Sunday, more than 13 institutions tied to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, including political offices, newspapers, clubs and charities, were sealed.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government, meanwhile, has dismissed Arafat as ``irrelevant.''
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip mark the start of celebrations for the Eid al-Fitr feast a day after Israeli occupation troops shot dead four Palestinians in an Israeli tank raid on Palestinian-ruled areas in northern Gaza Strip.
About 55 Palestinians were injured when Israel sent tanks into Beit Hanoun in a sweep for militants it suspects of attacks on Israelis. The tanks started to withdraw late on Saturday.
More than 40 Israelis have been killed in Resistance bombings and shootings since Zinni arrived in late November. He and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns met Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo on Saturday.
The State Department said Zinni would return to Washington for consultations after spending three weeks in the area. It said he would ``remain engaged and return to the region'' but added efforts to broker a truce faced ``major challenges.''
The latest killings came hours after Washington used its veto at the United Nations to kill a Security Council resolution urging international monitors in the West Bank and Gaza. It claimed the plan was biased against Israel and would not promote peace.