Israeli soldiers killed Sunday morning a Palestinian who barricaded himself in an Arab home after shooting and wounding an Israeli at the settlement of Dugit, Israeli media reports said.
Initially Israel Radio said soldiers had killed two Palestinians after a several hour gunbattle. Later it emerged that one was dead and another was being sought. Israeli forces, meanwhile, began bulldozing the home where the Palestinian hid out, the radio said. The Israeli man was moderately injured. The Palestinian was identified as Basil Naji from Hamas. Naji left behind a video will saying the attack was revenge for Israel's killing of commander Salah Shehadeh.
"We will teach the Israelis a lesson they won't forget," the 22-year old from the northern Gaza Strip area of Jabalya said, holding an M-16 assault rifle.
Palestinian witnesses and security forces said Israeli tanks had rolled into position near the site of the shooting as troops searched homes and cars traveling along the north-south artery of the seaside strip.
Ten Palestinians were detained, four of them intelligence officers, the witnesses said.
Elsewhere, two Israeli soldiers were wounded in the West Bank town of Jenin, Israel Radio reported. The soldiers were listed in light to moderate condition.
Meanwhile, Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat said in interviews published Sunday that he would not agree for the US to turn him into "a puppet president." "If they think they will make me an honorary president," like Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan, "they are mistaken," he was quoted as saying.
Regarding the meetings between PA interior minister and CIA chief and earlier discussions with Secretary of State Colin Powell and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Arafat said "The talks were very positive."
Speaking to reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday, Arafat did not appear too optimistic about the opportunity for peace. "The Israeli leadership is looking only for more escalation for its military plans and they don't want to achieve any peace," he stated.
On his part, Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called the Palestinian Authority's general acceptance of the "Gaza first" plan a trick performed ahead of the talks held with the U.S. officials in Washington. Sharon made these comments during the weekly government meeting on Sunday.
But the prime minister also said that he supported the contacts between Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and senior Palestinian Authority officials to move the plan forward. Ben-Eliezer discussed the plan last week with PA Interior Minister Abdel Razek Yehiyeh and Mohammed Dahlan, security advisor to Arafat. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
