Palestinian, 16-years Old, Killed Near Gaza City

30/11/2002| IslamWeb

A 16-year-old Palestinian boy was shot and killed Saturday on his way home from school east of Gaza city, and another was wounded, hospital officials said. Witnesses said Israeli occupation soldiers fired on the teenagers as they walked with a group of schoolchildren about 700 yards from an Israeli occupation army outpost at the Karni Crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip . The occupation army said it was checking the report.

On Friday a top Palestinian official said the U.S.-backed "road map" to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would not be presented on its target date of Dec. 20 and will probably only be announced after Israeli elections the following month.

This would mean a further delay in reaching a truce in the 26-month-old Palestinian uprising, which has come under increasing criticism by top Palestinian officials and ordinary Palestinians polled in recent surveys.

Palestinian Parliament Speaker Ahmed Qureia added his voice to those questioning the merits of the uprising, or intefadeh, on Friday.

"The intefadeh sent a very important message to all the world that there is occupation on the ground," Qureia told Associated Press Television News. "Now we have to evaluate the situation. ... Why the intefadeh has been transformed into a military act - is it useful or not?"

The occupation army said that over the last two weeks it had arrested 55 Palestinians suspected of resistance man activity, including five senior leaders. Eight were planning to carry out resistance bombings, the occupation army said.

Among them was Majid Masri, 28, the Al Aqsa leader in the Rafidia neighborhood of the West Bank town of Nablus, who was arrested by Israeli occupation forces on Friday. Masri, who also used the name Abu Mojahed, was also a spokesman for the group in the West Bank.

Also Saturday, Israeli police recaptured two members of the resistance Islamic group Hamas who escaped from a prison in Ashkelon.

Israeli occupation troops on Friday blew up the West Bank homes of two resistance men who sprayed a polling station with gunfire Thursday during a Likud Party primary, killing six people and wounding more than 20.

The resistance men, cousins from the village of Jalaboun, were members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade affiliated with Yasser Arafat 's Fatah movement.

The Palestinian Authority  said Fatah was not involved in any way, but Prime Minister Ariel Sharon accused it and Arab countries of trying to interfere in Israel's election process.

Sharon won the primary with about 56 percent of the vote, compared to 40 percent for Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , final results released Friday showed.

In a bid to end the violence, the so-called Quartet of Mideast mediators has been working to finalize a document aimed at negotiating a settlement. The plan calls for a three-phase, three-year program that would result in a Palestinian state living in peace beside Israel.

The document, which has gone through several revisions, was supposed to have been presented to a Dec. 20 conference of the Quartet members - the United States, European Union , Russia and the United Nations .

However, Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath said Friday, following meetings with U.S. officials in Washington, that he was told the plan would not be publicized on Dec. 20, as planned. Shaath said he believed publication would be delayed.

"The American administration is still discussing the issue but most probably the road map will not be declared officially on the 20th of December," he told The Associated Press. "They prefer to wait until after the Israeli elections, when there'll be an Israeli government ready to work with this plan."

Polls indicate Sharon will beat the Labor Party's dovish ex-general Amram Mitzna in the vote.


PHOTO CAPTION


Palestinian youths look through the rubble left after Israeli occupation forces destroyed the house of Yousef Abu Rub in the West Bank village of Jalboun near Jenin Friday Nov. 29, 2002. Israeli occupation troops on Friday blew up the homes of Omar and Yousef Abu Rub, two Palestinian resistance men who attacked an office of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud Party during a primary vote, killing six Israelis and wounding more than 20. The two were shot and killed by Israeli occupation forces during the attack. (AP Photo/ Mohammed Balas)