Occupation Troops Kill & Arrest More Palestinians as Sharon Says a Palestinian State is a 'Fait Accompli' & Hamas & Fatah Seek Closer Ties

15/11/2002| IslamWeb

The Israeli occupation army killed a Palestinian teenager in the West Bank city of Nablus it invaded a day before, as it stepped up a military response to a deadly attack on a kibbutz, Palestinian sources said. In Gaza, Israeli occupation troops also shot dead Khaled Abu Hilal, 36, in Rafah refugee camp, near the Egyptian border in an area of frequent clashes, Palestinian security sources said..

In Nablus, 17-year-old Jalal Aweja was killed when soldiers in tanks retaliated to stone-throwers, Palestinian medical sources said.

In the West Bank town of Ramallah, the Israeli occupation army made 35 arrests at a Ramadan evening gathering, Palestinian security sources said.

Occupation troops from a special unit burst into a hall where almost 800 people were gathered for a communal "iftar", the meal which breaks the dawn-to-dusk fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, they said.

The occupation army also rounded up 17 resistance Hamas activists in Ramallah and nearby Bir Zeit.

SATTERFIELD IN AMMAN

As Israel continued its operations, US envoy David Satterfield left the Palestinian territories to discuss a so-called new roadmap for peace in the region with officials of the Middle East diplomatic "quartet" in Amman.

After his meetings with Palestinian officials Wednesday in Jericho, the State Department envoy was upbeat, and top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said he hoped a final draft of the plan would be ready before Christmas.

The plan, supported by the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia, calls for a Palestinian state with provisional borders by next year and definitive ones by 2005.

SHARON SAYS A PALESTINIAN STATE IS A 'FAIT ACCOMPLI'

In an interview with Israel's Channel Two television Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said a Palestinian state was a "fait accompli" and that he was ready to reach an agreement with the Palestinians.

As the race heats up with his hardline rival, Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for the right-wing Likud party leadership, Sharon has successfully fashioned himself into the government's leading moderate.

Only two weeks remain until primaries that will decide who leads the right-wing party to Israel's general election on January 28.

An opinion poll published Thursday predicts that Likud will dominate the next parliament, doubling its number of seats from 19 to 38, while Labour's presence will plunge from 25 to 19, its lowest level ever.

PALESTINIAN RIVAL RESISTANCE GROUPS HAMAS & AQSA BRIGADES SEEK CLOSER TIES

A meeting in Cairo between the rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas has produced an agreement to establish closer relations.

The participants also discussed the current Israeli election campaign, and whether they should modify their tactics to avoid precipitating the election of an even more right-wing Israeli government.

Observers described the communiqué from the Cairo meeting as being bland in the extreme; the two groups agreed to meet again, and to set up a permanent liaison committee.

But for senior leaders of Fatah and Hamas to meet at all was news, according to the sources.

It is the first meeting of its kind since the mid-1990s, and the intervening years have been punctuated with sometimes fatal clashes between their followers.

2-YEAR OLD VICTIM OF ISRAELI ATROCITIES BURIED IN RAFAH

In southern Gaza, hundreds of Palestinians attended a funeral Thursday for a 2-year-old boy killed by Israeli troops, the second toddler to be shot dead in the Rafah refugee camp in as many days.

Hamid Masari was killed Wednesday as the family tried to flee to safety after Israeli occupation troops opened fire on the refugee camp, witnesses said.

PALESTINIANS USED AS HUMAN SHIELDS

The Israeli human rights group B'tselem, meanwhile, said the occupation army was continuing to use Palestinian civilians as human shields in operations to arrest suspected resistance activists, in defiance of an Aug. 18 Supreme Court injunction prohibiting the practice. The occupation army says it has forbidden the practice and is investigating the allegations.

ARAFAT ACCUSES ISRAEL OF DELIBERATELY ESCALATING THE VIOLENCE

Meanwhile, in Ramallah, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said that Israel is "escalating every day every hour escalating. It is clear that they want to continue their military operation against our people, against our cities and towns and villages and establishments and infrastructures."
   
Arafat was speaking to reporters after a meeting at his half damaged headquarters in Ramallah with Egyptian head intelligence officer, Omar Suleiman .

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinian leader Yaser Arafat, left , walks with Head of Egyptian Intelligence Omar Suleiman outside his office after their meeting in the West Bank town of Ramallah Thursday Nov. 14 , 2002. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasse