Palestinian cabinet members on Sunday welcomed a decision by the Group of Eight summit and the US administration to support sending observers to the Middle East, urging a quick deployment even as Israeli gunfire killed yet another Palestinianin the Gaza Strip, said reports.
"The Palestinian leadership favorably welcomes the decision by the G8 summit and calls for its rapid implementation and for a mechanism to assure the smooth operation of the observer mission," a statement quoted by the Palestinian news agency, WAFA, said late Saturday.
The statement said it was "necessary to send observers as soon as possible to stop the spilling of Palestinian blood, to apply the recommendations of the Mitchell report, stop Israeli colonization and save the peace process."
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat had called the cabinet meeting earlier, after urging the G8 leaders to press Israel to end its "aggression" following another night of violence.
A statement issued by the G8 leaders said that the supervision of a third party would be essential for reducing the tension in the region, reported Haaretz newspaper.
"The dangerous situation in the Middle East is embedded with severe dangers," the statement read.
"Too many people lost their lives. We can not stand by as the condition deteriorates. Immediate action is necessary."
The leaders called for the deployment of an observation force as well as for the immediate implementation of the Mitchell Report recommendations.
Within the same context, Haaretz newspaper said that US President George Bush had backed the deployment of an international observer force in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The American administration is working on a formula for an observer force to monitor the Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire following the G8 resolution, said the paper.
The US government is seeking a formula that will not actively disturb Israel, which opposes the deployment of foreign observers in the Occupied Territories, but will contain a nod toward the European states and Saudi Arabia, which are pressing the US to restrain Israel and send in an observer force, it said, without quoting sources.
Israeli diplomatic sources said the US administration had no great affection for Arafat, with Vice President Richard Cheney refraining from contradicting former prime minister Ehud Barak's strong criticism of Arafat, during their meeting on Thursday.
But Israel and the US differ on how to deal with the PA leader, said Haaretz.
The US ambassador to Israel, Dan Kurtzer, met on Friday with Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and asked him why Israel opposed the deployment of observers in the Occupied Territories.
"The observers won't be able to enter the headquarters of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad, or the places where booby-trapped cars are being prepared or where explosive-laden belts are being placed on the bodies of suicide bombers," Peres said, cited by the paper.
"They will only be able to report on the Israeli response."
Peres used the UNIFIL force in South Lebanon as an example of the ineffectiveness of an international force, describing them as "more than 5,000 people, who until today never prevented anything from any direction."
MORE UNREST IN THE PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES
The G8 statement came as a Palestinian was killed late Saturday by Israeli gunfire in a residential quarter near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian hospital sources said, cited by WAFA.
Yehia Sobhi Al Daya was hit when Israeli soldiers opened fire with heavy weapons on the Mughrata district, south of Gaza City. The 48-year-old father of three died in hospital.
Also, two Palestinian members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) were injured, one seriously, in an explosion Saturday at Nablus in the West Bank, according to Palestinian hospital sources.
Palestinian security forces sealed off the area and details of the blast were not immediately known, they told AFP.
The two injured were Mahmoud Issa, 33, from the village of Salem, and Fadi Hanani, 33, from the village of Beit Furik, near Nablus. Issa was seriously wounded.
The two men were being sought by the Israeli security forces, witnesses said.
During the night of Friday to Saturday, members of a special Israeli unit kidnapped Ahmed Taha, 35, a member of the PFLP, near Ramallah, according to Palestinian sources.
In the meantime, Israeli security forces were on alert for possible Palestinian reprisals over the murder of three Palestinians in the Hebron area, said Haaretz.
Israeli security forces searched for Jewish extremists who murdered three members of a Palestinian family, including a three-month-old baby.
A shadowy group with links to the outlawed anti-Arab Kach movement claimed responsibility for the shooting of the three Palestinians on Thursday that wounded four other members of the family, Haaretz said.
"This attack could not have taken place without the prior political and security approval of Israel, which has protected the settlers from start to finish," Jibril Rjoub, head of Palestinian preventative security in the West Bank, told AFP.
The funeral for baby Diya Al Tmeizi and two adult relatives Friday was punctuated by angry calls for vengeance against Israel and in particular settlers, whose presence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is one of the biggest Palestinian grievances.
According to the Economist, Israel, in flagrant violation of the 1993 Oslo Accords, continued to pour settlers into the Occupied Territories during the 1990s, when neither side was allowed to take steps that would prejudice the outcome of "final status" peace talks.
Since the September 2000 eruption of the latest Palestinian uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation, the media has reported that Palestinians have killed at least 125 Israelis with weapons ranging from stones and knives to machineguns and car bombs. Israeli military sources have reported well over 600 injuries to Israelis of Jewish descent.
In the same time period, according to the UK newspaper The Guardian, Israeli soldiers and armed Jewish settlers have killed 13 Arab Israelis and 510 Palestinians with weapons ranging from machineguns and tanks to US-made Apache helicopter gunships and F-16s.
According to an Amnesty International report, nearly 100 of the Palestinians killed were children. In addition, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has reported over 14,000 Palestinians wounded.
Jewish author Noam Chomsky, who according to a New York Times Book Review article is “arguably the most important intellectual alive,” has been quoted as saying: “State terrorism is an extreme form of terrorism, generally much worse than individual terrorism because it has the resources of a state behind it.” - Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
