Occupation Troops Kill 12-year-old Girl in Southern Gaza as Sharon Ignores US Considerate Rebuke

09/10/2002| IslamWeb

HIGHLIGHTS: 4 Israeli Settlers Wounded, Two of them Seriously in a Resistance Ambush Near Hebron, Al-Khalil||In Retaliation, Israel Sends Tanks Rolling into Palestinian Parts of Hebron||ICRC Head Describes Humanitarian Situation in Territories as Being the Most Dire in 35 Years of Israeli Occupation||Palestinian Security Forces Still Searching for Abductors of Gaza Police Chief who was Later Murdered in Revenge for Killing Two Resistance Men||Attempts to Contain the Threat of Further Inter-Palestinian Fighting that Has so far Claimed 4 Lives Have Yet to Materialize|| STORY: A Palestinian 12-year-old girl was killed in the Gaza Strip as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pledged more army raids into the bastion of Palestinian Resistance, the day after an incursion killed 16 Palestinians there and drew a strong but considerate rebuke from Israel's top ally Washington.

In other confrontations, four Israelis were wounded, one of them seriously, in an ambush near Hebron in the West Bank, while new clashes erupted between Palestinian police and supporters of the Palestinian Resistance group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

In retaliation to the attack on the settlers, Israeli armored vehicles rolled into the Palestinian parts of the divided Hebron, Al-Khalil. Hebron is the only West Bank city split into Israeli and Palestinian-controlled zones. About 450 Jewish settlers live in three enclaves in the center of the city. Israeli soldiers patrol the area, which also includes about 30,000 of the 130,000 Palestinians in Hebron.

After the shooting, Jewish settlers scuffled with Palestinians in downtown Hebron and smashed the windows of four Palestinian-owned cars, witnesses said. Such clashes are common in Hebron.

ICRC HEAD DESCRIBES SITUATION IN TERRITORIES AS BEING MOST DIRE IN 35 YEARS OF ISRAELI OCCUPATION

Israel also took a drubbing from the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross who pronounced the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territories the most dire in 35 years of Israeli occupation.

In a boost for the Palestinians, Israel's reoccupation of the West Bank was taken to task by the head of the International Committee for the Red Cross, Jakob Kellenberger, who is on a visit to the region.

"The humanitarian situation has never been as bad as it is now," said Kellenberger, whose humanitarian organisation has had a permanent presence in the territories since they were captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

"We are in a crisis," he told reporters in Jerusalem, adding that the situation had deteriorated sharply since March when Israel first reoccupied Palestinian self-rule cities in the West Bank.


DEFIANT SHARON

Another life was claimed in the Gaza Strip Tuesday as Israeli gunfire hit Maisa Zanoun, 12, in the chest in the southern town of Rafah, Palestinian medical sources said.

The bloodshed came hours after a defiant Sharon vowed more army raids into the Gaza Strip like the one on Monday in Khan Yunis that claimed the lives of 16 Palestinians and drew strong international rebukes including a barrage of criticism from Washington.

US President George W. Bush is "deeply concerned" about reports of Israeli raids in Gaza that have left civilians dead or wounded, his spokesman Ari Fleischer said in a statement Tuesday.

Bush's scolding came on top of harsh words from the US State Department as Washington looks to quiet the two-year conflict between Israel and the Palestinians as it threatens military intervention in Iraq.

However, Israel's right-wing premier, forced to bow to US pressure last month to end his siege of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's base, appeared to pay no heed to the stream of international outrage over Monday's raid.

Sharon's pugnacious remarks also drew irate reactions from the Palestinians, who qualified them as tantamount to a declaration of war.

THREAT OF FURTHER INTER-PALESTINIAN FIGHTING PERSISTS

And Palestinian security forces were still searching Tuesday for a renegade Hamas operative who, together with 20 of his men, abducted and murdered a Gaza police chief, in apparent revenge for the killing of two Islamists a year ago in anti-US riots which the police tried to suppress.

In gunbattles after the murder, four Hamas supporters were shot dead as police tracked down Imad Aqel, the local Hamas leader who carried out the hit.

Fresh clashes broke out Tuesday when Hamas supporters threw three home-made hand grenades at Gaza police headquarters before being dispersed. Nobody was injured in the skirmish.

In a bid to calm the situation, the National and Islamic Forces, an umbrella group of the 13 main Palestinian factions, including both Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement and Hamas, met in Gaza City Tuesday night to try to resolve the feud, a high-ranking Fatah official said.

But the talks ended without any agreement being reached, a Hamas leader said later, who stressed the sides would keep meeting.

PHOTO CAPTION

Israeli occupation soldiers and police officers guard a vehicle near the West Bank town of Hebron Tuesday Oct. 8, 2002, after four Israeli occupants of the vehicle were wounded, two of them seriously, in a shooting attack. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Palestinian resistance groups have targeted Jewish settlers on West Bank roads throughout the two years of Mideast fighting. (AP Photo/ZOOM 77