Israeli troops killed seven Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, rattling a fresh accord to secure a lasting truce on the eve of the first anniversary of the uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The latest deaths came just a day after Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat agreed to work to consolidate an elusive cease-fire.
They met under strong US pressure for a drop in regional tensions, viewed as crucial to its bid to pull together a global coalition against terrorism in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks.
Hospital sources said Ali Salem Abu Balima, a 24-year-old man with psychiatric problems, was riddled with seven bullets after apparently approaching soldiers guarding the settlement of Kfar Darom.
And a 15-year-old boy, Muawieha Ali Nahal, was struck by several bullets in the chest near Rafah, a flashpoint in the southern Gaza Strip near the Egyptian border, the sources said.
Another three Palestinians died in Israeli tank fire earlier Thursday and more than 30 others were wounded, including five youths, during an army incursion in the same sector.
The tanks fired with heavy machine-guns and cannons on a nearby refugee camp, Palestinian security sources said. Eight houses were destroyed by Israeli bulldozers, which also took part in the incursion launched overnight.
A total of 827 people have now been killed in the intifada, or uprising, which broke out on September 28, 2000, a tally which includes 635 Palestinians and 169 Israelis.
Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rudeina charged that "the Israeli military operation is an attempt ... to torpedo the results of the meeting" between the Palestinian leader and Peres.
But an Israeli military spokesman insisted the tanks had only entered a military sector that remained under Israel's total control under the autonomy accords with the Palestinians.
The incursion was in retaliation for a bomb attack just ahead of the Arafat-Peres meeting. Three Israeli soldiers were wounded as their post was blasted from an underground tunnel, the spokesman said.
"We destroyed several homes which were used to smuggle arms from Egypt as well as to shelter Palestinian grenade-throwers," he said.
Friday was also set to mark the resumption of security cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians.
Israeli officials said that for the first time since July 25 a high-level joint security committee would meet following Yom Kippur, the most sacred day in the Jewish calendar. CIA agents are also expected to take part.
The truce agreement aims to revive two internationally-backed plans: the Mitchell understanding on rebuilding confidence between the two sides and the Tenet agreement on forging a durable cease-fire.
But a senior Palestinian security official on Thursday ruled out the arrest of suspected militants as demanded by Israel.
Palestinian preventative security chief for the Gaza Strip, Mohammed Dahlan, interviewed on Voice of Palestine radio, slammed the list of more than 100 suspected militants presented to Arafat.
"Israel has a habit of presenting such lists accusing innocent people and Palestinian militants," he said. "Several have nothing to do with what they are accused of and we will not go ahead with the arrests that Israel wants."
Israeli radio said some of the Palestinians on the list had carried out or organized attacks on Israel, while others were alleged to have prepared car bombings or recruited suicide bombers.
Israel wanted 10 of the suspects arrested within 48 hours, it added.
After the Peres-Arafat meeting, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat read a joint statement vowing a return to "full security cooperation" and pledging to "exert maximum efforts to sustain the declared cease-fire."
He said Israel would begin to lift its military blockade of the West Bank and Gaza, which has created a stranglehold on Palestinians' everyday lives, and to redeploy its forces.
The United States and European Union both welcomed the deal as a key step towards restoring peace.
Israel and the Palestinians already declared a truce last week, but since then at least nine people have now been killed, although Peres said there had been a clear drop in Palestinian violence.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had warned that no meeting with Arafat could go ahead as long as violence continued on the ground.
At a meeting in Damascus, however, radical Palestinian groups denounced the truce-consolidation accord and said they were not committed by any deal with the Jewish state.
"There is no reason why the intifada should be the victim of explosions in the United States," said Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal, referring to the terrorist attacks on targets in New York and Washington -- Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
