gelatik
06.03.02, 11:37
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israel shelled Palestinian targets by land, air
and sea Wednesday in retaliation for a Palestinian rocket attack on an Israeli
town. Five Palestinians, including three civilians, were killed in one of the
most intense Israeli assaults on the Gaza Strip in 17 months of
fighting.Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's home in Gaza City and a U.N.-run
school for the blind were severely damaged in the airstrikes. The blasts blew
out windows and collapsed a back wall in Arafat's home. Arafat's wife and
daughter live abroad.
In a West Bank village, three Palestinian school students were wounded when
Israeli soldiers fired toward villagers throwing stones at an Israeli convoy,
the principal said. Two of the students, ages 12 and 16, were seriously
wounded, he said. The army said the Israeli convoy came under fire.
The Israeli strike against Gaza came several hours after Palestinians fired two
unguided Qassam rockets late Tuesday, hitting an Israeli town for the first
time.
One missile struck an apartment building in the Israeli town of Sderot near
Gaza. An infant was moderately wounded and another child lightly hurt. "Nothing
is the same as it was before," Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal told Israel Radio. "Now
children cannot play peacefully in their yards here."
Israel's security Cabinet on Tuesday reaffirmed a decision to carry out
relentless military strikes against Palestinian targets in response to a sharp
increase in Palestinian attacks on Israelis in recent days. In the past week,
one of the bloodiest since violence erupted in September 2000, 62 people have
died on the Palestinian side and 29 on the Israeli side.
The Cabinet also decided to tighten travel restrictions further, banning
Palestinian traffic on most West Bank roads.The government said Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon postponed next week's to Spain and England "in light of recent
events."
In Washington, the U.S. State Department called on Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat to stop terrorism and on Israel to show maximum restraint. U.S. State
Department spokesman Richard Boucher said there were no plans to send mediator
Anthony Zinni back to the region. In two previous trips, Zinni failed to secure
a truce.
In other developments, Syrian President Bashar Assad declared his support for
the Saudi-proposed peace plan to end the Middle East conflict, a Saudi official
said. The proposal offers Israel peace, trade and security with the Arab world
in return for Israeli withdrawal from Arab territories it seized during the
1967 Mideast war, including the strategic Golan Heights which Israel won from
Syria.
Other Arab and Western leaders have shown keen interest in the Saudi proposal
as a way to end Israeli-Palestinian violence, but Israeli leaders have rejected
the prospect of any Israeli withdrawal to pre-1967 lines.
In the Israeli assault on Gaza, one of the most extensive in recent months,
navy boats, helicopters and tanks shelled Palestinian targets in several
locations. Troops also commandeered three apartment buildings in a refugee
camp, demolished two Palestinian police stations and destroyed the home of a
fugitive militia leader.
The heaviest fighting was reported in the villages of Abassan and Karrara in
the southern strip. Witnesses said 12 tanks moved into the area, drawing
intense Palestinian fire. Helicopter gunships fired machine guns toward the
gunmen, sending civilians scrambling for cover.
A 40-year-old Palestinian woman was killed by a shot in the back, and two other
civilians were critically wounded and later died, Palestinian doctors said.
Israeli troops barred ambulances from reaching the wounded men, who died after
being left untreated for about three hours, doctors said. There was no
immediate comment by the military.
In one of the villages, Israeli troops demolished the home of Issam Abu Daka,
fugitive leader of the military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation
of Palestine, and arrested 14 relatives. Abu Daka is suspected of having
masterminded a deadly assault on an Israeli outpost several months ago.
The Israeli military said troops searched for militants and destroyed a total
of three homes of suspects.
Tanks also moved toward the northern Gaza towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya,
digging up the main road and building barriers.
Israeli navy gunboats also fired at a Palestinian base on the coast north of
Gaza City, witnesses said. Three Palestinian policemen were injured when a
shell hit their car, and one died later of his wounds, doctors said. Another
man was killed in the same area on Wednesday morning.
On Tuesday, five Israelis were killed in a shooting attack on a restaurant, a
suicide bombing on a bus and a West Bank road ambush. On the Palestinian side,
six people were killed, including two assailants and three Palestinian
militiamen whose car was hit by an Israeli missile.
One of those killed was Muhannad Abu Halaweh, a top aide to Marwan Barghouti, a
leader of Arafat's Fatah movement in the West Bank. Israel said Abu Halaweh was
responsible for several attacks on Israeli motorists.
