The Palestinian leadership appealed to the US to restrain Israel after Israeli helicopter gunships hit official buildings early Saturday morning.
Palestinian top negotiator Saeb Erekat was quoted by Haaretz as saying that the United States' refusal to condemn the Israeli action would only encourage Israe;I Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to strike again.
"We urge President Bush, for the sake of peace, to say to Sharon 'You don't have the green light, there is no military solution for this,'" Erekat said Saturday.
Meanwhile, Sharon’s spokesman said that the atacks were not meant to destabilize the Palestinian Authority's control in the region but to "show Arafat we mean business."
"Our aim is not to destabilize the region but to send a warning. Arafat doesn't understand we mean business about keeping the ceasefire," Avi Pazner told AFP.
Arafat said in a rare interview on Israeli television Friday that he was "ready to implement all the agreements which have been concluded" with Israel, reiterating that his Palestinian Authority had publicly accepted a truce with Israel.
The rocket attack destroyed Palestinian security buildings in the southern Gaza Strip, and the occupation army claimed the new raids came in retaliation to 11 mortar bombs fired at the Jewish settlement bloc of Gush Katif, said AFP.
The Tel Aviv-based daily, Haaretz, said that helicopter gunships hit buildings belonging to Palestinian Intelligence and the elite presidential guard, Force 17, in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah.
The attack came only 24 hours after US-made F16s bombarded two buildings in the Gaza city, wounding 18 Palestinian policemen and two civilians, an old man and his son who were heading to the mosque for dawn prayers.
"Despite Israeli demands to curtail mortar attacks, several mortar bombs were fired overnight at the Gush Katif settlement bloc," an army statement said. "Therefore, the army attacked Force 17 and Palestinian intelligence buildings in Rafah.
"These organizations are directly responsible for mortar attacks," the statement said.
Two Apache attack helicopters fired nine missiles into three buildings in one compound in Rafah overnight, on the border with Egypt.
There were no casualties, as the buildings had been evacuated, but Haaretz reported that the electric supply to Rafah had been cut off after a transformer was damaged in the attack.
The Palestinian official news agency (WAFA) said that civilian houses in the neighborhood were damaged.
A total of 11 mortars were fired at the Jewish settlement bloc in the southern Gaza Strip since Thursday, the army said. No damage was reported, said the agency.
On Friday afternoon, two armed Palestinian resistance fighters were killed by the Israeli occupation troops close to the West Bank settlement of Ariel, in an area under Israeli security control. Haaretz said that soldiers spotted the two men, one of whom was armed with a Kalachnikov rifle, as they were en route to a road close to the settlement of Peduel. The two were apparently on their way to carry out shooting attacks on Israeli vehicles – Albawaba.com
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