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| Middle East |
| Deaders keep piling up... |
| 2004-02-08 |
| After nightfall, Palestinians opened fire on an Israeli vehicle at the entrance to the settlement of Talmon, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, killing Roi Arbel from Talmon and wounding two others. Arbel, a 28-year-old father of five whose wife gave birth to triplets two months ago, was the first Israeli to be killed in a Palestinian attack this year. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a militant group with links to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction, claimed responsibility for the shooting attack. In the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian who opened fire on them, while in the West Bank, Israeli troops conducted house-to-house searches in the Tulkarem refugee camp for a second day. Palestinian witnesses said about 200 residents were rounded up for questioning. The Israeli military said it arrested six suspects, including one man who allegedly planned to carry out a suicide bombing in Israel. The operation ended at nightfall and Israeli forces withdrew, lifting a curfew, the military said. Also Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon hinted that Israel might pull out of the Gaza Strip. His comments came as he is pushing mostly undisclosed plans for unilateral pullbacks from the West Bank and Gaza Strip if peace talks fail. A day earlier, Sharon pledged to bring such moves to a parliament vote after consulting his coalition partners and international allies -- a way of giving hard-line parties a possible veto over evacuating Jewish settlements. Visiting the town of Segev Shalom in the Negev desert, Sharon welcomed Bedouin soldiers who had served in the Gaza Strip. "I hope that the day will come when we won’t have to be in the (Gaza) Strip and you will really be free to do things that are more important." About 7,000 Israelis live in 17 settlements in the Gaza Strip among more than 1 million Palestinians. Several of the settlements are isolated in heavily populated areas and are considered prime objects for removal under any redeployment plan. Sharon has said that if talks on the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan do not progress in the coming months, he would order unilateral steps to disengage from the Palestinians, including imposing a temporary border with the West Bank and moving some Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. However, Sharon has not given specific details of his plan, saying it is still being prepared. He appointed Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland, the incoming head of his security council, to direct the planning. |
| Posted by:tipper |