Four Palestinians Killed as Bush Meets Senior Palestinian Official for the First Time Since Calling for New Palestinian Leadership

14/09/2002| IslamWeb

HIGHLIGHTS: Palestinian Resistance Men Detonate Explosive Charge Near One Israeli Settlement & Clash with Occupation Troops at Another||16 Hamas Activists Detained by Occupation Troops in the Northern Palestinian West Bank Town of Tubas||Palestinian Official Calls on Quartet to Intervene to End Israeli Aggression||Mubarak Pays Tribute to Bush's Renewed Commitment to the Creation of an Independent Palestinian State|| STORY: The Israeli occupation army kept up the pressure on the Palestinians, shooting dead one and wounding six others in a fresh Gaza Strip raid, while arresting dozens in the Palestinian territories.

Separately, three brothers, including a member of the Palestinian Resistance movement, Jihad , died and eight other Palestinians were hurt in an explosion that rocked Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza, Palestinian security officials said.

The blast came from a house belonging to an official of the mainstream Fatah movement, Iyad esh-Sharif, who was seriously wounded, they said, adding the cause was still unclear.

Sobhi Zeynou, 26, was killed when Israeli tanks fired shells in Rafah, at the far southern end of the Strip, in the latest in a string of incursions into the territory.

Six others were wounded, three of them seriously, by automatic weapons fire, Palestinian medical sources.

A column of 25 Israeli tanks entered the town before dawn, a Palestinian security source said.

The tanks were backed up by two assault helicopters, which fired machine guns, and accompanied by two bulldozers which razed at least one house and a metal workshop.

The Israeli occupation army said it arrested a dozen Palestinians, four of them on its wanted list. Troops also destroyed six metals workshops used to manufacture makeshift weapons.

Earlier, occupation army sources said an explosive charge went off as an Israeli convoy passed near Netzarim settlement in the northern Gaza Strip, while two makeshift rockets hit an Israeli village in the Negev desert.

Neither incident caused any casualties.

Israel has stepped up large-scale raids into Gaza, mirroring similar operations in the West Bank while stopping short of the massive invasion which has brought almost the whole of the latter territory under their control.

A senior Palestinian official called on the so-called Quartet of top Middle East peace players, which is to meet next Tuesday in New York, to "put a halt to the Israeli aggression."

"We call on the Quarter (United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia) to put a halt to the Israeli aggression and secure implementation of (UN) Security Council calls for an immediate Israeli withdrawal to allow the relaunch of negotiations," Arafat's adviser Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.

In another clash, Israeli troops exchanged fire with Palestinian Resistance activists outside a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, wounding one activist, a Palestinian source said.

An anonymous caller from Jihad said its activists carried out the attack on Kfar Darom.

In the West Bank, 16 wanted Palestinians allied to the Resistance Hamas group and to Arafat's Fatah were arrested during an overnight operation in the northern town of Tubas, an occupation army spokesman said.

They were arrested in their homes in the village, he said.

Palestinian security sources said only three of those arrested were wanted by Israel, one of whom belonged to Hamas, another to Islamic Jihad group and another to Al-Aqsa Martrys Brigades, an armed offshoot of Fatah.

Meanwhile, Palestinian witnesses said Israeli troops arrested two men, one of whom was a Fatah leader, near the town of Hebron. But the occupation army said it only arrested the wanted Fatah leader.

Three more Palestinians were rounded up elsewhere in the West Bank during military operations, the occupation army said.

Witnesses and the occupation army said a Palestinian teenager was shot and lightly wounded near the town of Nablus as Israeli soldiers fired warning shots at stone-throwers.

POLITICAL FRONT

On the political front, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak paid tribute to US President George Bush's renewed commitment to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

"I welcome his emphasis on the US commitment to establishment of an independent Palestinian state side by side with Israel," Bush said.

He expressed hope of an "active involvement" by the US administration so that the Middle East peace process would "gain a strong momentum ... and reach a just and comprehensive peace as soon as possible."

In an address to the UN General Assembly late Thursday, Bush said Washington remained committed to an "independent and democratic" Palestine.

But he also reiterated US criticism of Arafat's leadership, saying: "Like all other people, Palestinians deserve a government that serves their interests and listens to their voices."

BUSH MEETS SHAATH

In New York, President Bush spoke to a Palestinian official for several minutes at a U.N. reception -- the first such contact since Bush called for new Palestinian leadership, the official said on Friday.

Nabil Shaath, a top aide to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, told Reuters that he spoke to Bush for several minutes on Thursday evening and received assurances that the United States will insist that Israel also meet its obligations.

On June 24, Bush said the United States would not help the Palestinians achieve an independent state until they chose a new leadership not "compromised by terror."

But U.S. officials have continued contacts with officials appointed by Arafat, including Shaath, negotiator Saeb Erekat and outgoing Interior Minister Abdel-Razaq al-Yahya. Bush has never met Arafat, even before adopting his new policy.

Shaath told Reuters in a telephone interview that Bush told him he suffered when he saw the sufferings of Palestinians.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Palestinian man from the West Bank side of Abu Dis jumps over an Israeli border police barricade into the Jerusalem side of Abu Dis, divided by Israeli authorities this summer into West Bank and Jerusalem parts, Friday Sept. 13, 2002. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma)
- Sep 13 9:16 AM