Israeli forces on Wednesday blasted a Palestinian Force 17 post in the northern Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Israel has frozen a plan to make narrow areas east of the 1967 Green Line border "closed military zones" amid security fears.
The Israeli army fired missiles at a Palestinian Force 17 prsidential guards post in the Beit Hanoun area of the northern Gaza Strip, reported Radio Israel.
There were no reports of injuries initially, but the attack likely came in retaliation for a mortar attack on the Jewish settlement of Gush Katif.
Meanwhile, an Israeli plan to declare narrow areas east of the 1967 Green Line border as "closed military zones" has been frozen at this stage, according to an order given by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's entourage in Moscow, said Haaretz.
But Israeli troops and Israeli police remain on high alert for bombings and other attacks, after a total of five explosions rocked Jerusalem Monday and Tuesday.
Under the proposed plan, said the daily, movement of Palestinians would be barred in areas next to the Green Line, primarily in the Sharon region of central Israel, in an effort to prevent entry of resistance fighters into Israel proper.
At the same time, Palestinians with homes or agricultural lands within those areas, would be allowed entry by prior arrangement with military authorities.
The decree would be similar to ones that controlled the lives of Arab Israelis prior to 1966, when they were forced to obtain apartheid-style documents to move around in their homeland.
The measure was meant to be a further step in the creation of a "seam space" buffer, approved by Defense Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer in June after the Tel Aviv disco suicide bombing that killed 22 young Israelis. Security forces have already been reinforced along the Green Line under the buffer plan.
In the past, the army has often declared volatile areas of the West Bank and Gaza "closed military zones" for a variety of reasons, including carrying out military operations, creating a buffer between settlers and Palestinians, and limiting news coverage.
Sources in Sharon’s office were quoted as saying Tuesday that Israel would carry out a number of security measures in occupied Jerusalem following a series of bombings there.
A source in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's entourage for his four-day trip to Russia quoted the premier as saying that the new security measures would "put the Jerusalem situation in a totally new light."
Meanwhile, Ben Eliezer decided Tuesday to accede to a request by police to beef up forces in Jerusalem with Israeli soldiers.
It was also decided that additional steps would be taken to further reduce the possibility of Palestinian resistance fighters entering Israel through east Jerusalem, and from there heading west.
Israel blamed the Palestinian Authority for the latest suicide bombing in the occupied city, which has not been claimed by any group.
However, Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said on Tuesday that Israel was ultimately responsible for the bombing, which wounded 13 people in the city center.
"It is the Israeli government which is responsible for all attacks wherever they happen, whether the victims are Palestinians or Israelis," he told AFP, following the blast which wounded 13 people, two seriously.
Israel "is the only side that should be held responsible for that because of its continued policy of aggression," Abed Rabbo said.
Israel, which has militarily occupied Palestinian land for 34 years, blamed the bombing on the Palestinian Authority, saying it was a consequence of the "incitement to hatred" against Israel by Arab and Muslim countries at the UN racism conference in Durban, South Africa.
"Apparently, all the millions of dollars that the Sharon government spends on public relations did not help it from being labeled by almost everybody as the only racist country," Abed Rabbo said, referring to the conference which Israel and the United States quit late Monday.
Tuesday's explosion took place near the Bikur Holim Hospital on Hanevi'im Street, which is near the Sbarro restaurant where a suicide bomber blew himself up several weeks ago, killing 15 people.
Jerusalem police chief Mikki Levy said that the latest blast was "extremely powerful," and that the bomber had blown himself up next to a group of people.
Israel Radio said the bomber was disguised as a Jewish settler, with a beard and a kippa on his head.
A doctor at Bikur Holim Hospital told Haaretz that the casualties were suffering from burns and injuries inflicted by the nails, screws and shards of metal incorporated into the bomb.
Also on Wednesday, Israel Radio media reported that Israeli police had arrested eight Palestinian youths for suspected "terrorist" activities in the past few days.
The radio also reported that two mortar shells were fired at the Jewish settlement of Gush Katif. One landed inside Green Line border. However, no injuries were reported.
Also in Gaza, the Israeli security forces defused two explosive devices, south of Sufa crossing, said the radio.
“PA INTELLIGENCE PREVENTED ATTACK”
Palestinian Authority Intelligence commander Amin Al Hindi's agents prevented an attack against an Israeli target in the Gaza Strip, according to a senior Israeli security source quoted by the Jerusalem Post.
The source also said Palestinian mortars were being made in the Gaza Strip, using parts purchased in Germany, Sweden, and other European nations.
The parts are shipped through the Ashdod port and then transferred to Gaza, he claimed.
Mortars are also smuggled illegally into Gaza via the Mediterranean Sea and through underground tunnels dug beneath the Egyptian border at the southern end of the Strip, the Israelis allege.
The latest Palestinian uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation began in September 2000, and the ratio of Palestinians to Israelis killed stands at around four to one.
According to Amnesty International, Israeli soldiers have killed roughly 100 Palestinian children, nearly all in situations where the safety of the occupation forces was in no immediate danger - Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
