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| Israel-Palestine |
| Israel arrests dozens of militants; Palestinian leader appeals for calm |
| 2005-07-16 |
| Israeli troops arrested dozens of Palestinian militants across the West Bank on Saturday as Egyptian officials prepared to head to the Gaza Strip for talks aimed at ending a wave of violence that has left a Mideast truce in tatters. Israeli troops continued massing Saturday outside Gaza as Hamas militants in the volatile coastal strip launched volleys of mortar shells and homemade rockets at Israeli targets for a third straight day despite promises by Palestinian security officials to end the attacks. Meanwhile, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, speaking in an address on Palestinian television Saturday, appealed to militant groups to halt attacks on Israel and to return to the five-month-old ceasefire deal. Abbas called on the militants to respect their previous agreement to honour the truce, but blamed Israel for the recent outbreak of attacks. "We hold the Israeli government fully responsible for the consequences of its policy, which reflects a step backward from what we had achieved . . . and sabotaged any chance to maintain the truce," he said. "No one could expect the continuation of the truce from one side." An Israeli raid into Gaza would make it far more difficult to re-establish the truce and could lead to a breakdown in co-ordination between the two sides just a month before Israel begins its planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. "The Israeli tanks around Gaza are very, very dangerous. I am afraid that this will create serious problems," Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said. In response to the growing violence, Egypt will send Mustafa Behairy, a deputy to Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, to Gaza on Sunday to meet with Abbas and Hamas leaders in an effort to restore calm, according to Egyptian officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has also changed her schedule to include a last-minute trip to the region expected next week. As part of its new crackdown on violent groups, Israel arrested more than 30 wanted men in early morning operations Saturday in the West Bank cities of Hebron, Bethlehem, Nablus and Tulkarem, the army said. Israel also maintained a closure on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, preventing Palestinians from crossing into Israel. "Israel will not forfeit its basic right to self-defence, especially in the face of a continued and persistent Palestinian refusal to prevent terrorist attacks against Israel," said David Baker, an official in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office. Militants launched new mortar and rocket barrages at Gaza settlements and nearby communities in Israel on Saturday, slightly injuring two people when two rockets hit a house in the northern Gaza settlement of Nissanit, officials said. Sderot, an Israeli town outside Gaza, was also hit repeatedly. "It looks like a war here," Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal told Israel Radio. "It is impossible to continue living this way. This is unbearable." "If this is what happens before disengagement, God knows what will be here next month," he said. Palestinian officials said they would prevent attacks against Israeli forces by militants - eager to prove they are pushing Israel out of Gaza - during the pullout scheduled for mid-August. But their failure to stop the mortar and rocket attacks raised questions about their ability to follow through on that promise. Israel stepped up raids on Palestinian militants after an Islamic Jihad suicide bombing Tuesday killed five Israelis and a rocket attack on an Israeli town killed a 22-year-old woman Thursday night. On Friday, Israel resumed targeted killings of militants, which had been suspended under the truce, killing seven Hamas militants in air strikes and a follow-up raid in Gaza and the West Bank. Another Palestinian was shot and killed by soldiers after he threw stones at them, hospital officials said. Israel defended the targeted killings, saying they were intended to prevent imminent attacks. "Israel's policy is not to allow 'ticking bombs' to reach their targets," Amos Gilad, a top Defence Department official, told Israel Radio on Saturday. "Every pinpoint attack saves lives." Hamas said the rocket attacks were in retaliation for violence earlier this week, but the barrages also appeared aimed at sending a message to Palestinian leader Abbas, underscoring their demands to share power in Gaza after Israel withdraws. Abbas had resisted U.S. and Israeli demands to crack down on the militants, preferring instead to persuade them to voluntarily end attacks on Israel. But under strong pressure to stop the violence he changed tack Friday. Palestinian police, trying to stop the rocket firing, waged a gunbattle with Hamas militants in the streets of Gaza City on Friday that killed at least two people. Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, blamed the Palestinian Authority for the fighting. "We didn't start this. We didn't raise our weapons against Palestinians," he said Saturday. "The resistance can't be arrested, and fighters will not be jailed." |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #3 the dead sea |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-07-16 23:06 |
| #2 Kill them all and push their corpses into the sea. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom 2005-07-16 22:22 |
| #1 when one side keeps it's word, MSM, that's not a truce. That's a sucker's play. IDF/IAF Go GET THEM! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-07-16 22:13 |