Two settlers were killed Tuesday in separate incidents in the West Bank. According to Israel’s TV Channel One, the Israeli army intends to retaliate to these two attacks shortly.
Earlier in the day, Palestinian gunmen in the Bethlehem area shot a 71-year-old settler.
This incident was followed by another shooting attack Tuesday evening at the entrance to the Givat Ze'ev settlement north of Jeurusalem. A 30-year-old woman was killed and another suffered moderate-to-serious injuries.
According to initial reports, their vehicle stopped at a gas station at the entrance to the settlement when Palestinian gunmen approached the car and opened fire at short range. The gunmen then fled the scene on foot.
Israel’s Channel One reported that the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was behind this attack. It added the Palestinian gunmen apparently are escaping to the nearby village of Bir Naballah while Israeli troops are chasing them.
Bethlehem
A body of a settler, 71 years old, has been found Tuesday near the Palestinian village of Beit Sahoor, with signs of gun bullets and violence on it. Palestinian sources said that the bullet-ridden body was found in a vehicle with Israeli license plates.
Palestinian residents have reported to the Palestinian Police about their finding and the body has been taken to King Hussein Hospital in Bethlehem.
The settler, resident of the Jewish settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim, was a contractor who had apparently entered the Bethlehem area in the West Bank in order to buy building materials. He had set a meeting with Palestinian contacts, but when he arrived to Beit Sahoor he was abducted and shot in a football field by Tanzim activists.
According to Israeli press reports, the settler used his U.S. passport in order to enter the Palestinian-controlled area.
Later on the day, Tanzim has taken responsibility over the killing of the settler in Beit Sahoor. In an announcement aired by the Lebanese Resistance Movement Hizbollah Al Manar TV, the military wing of Fatah reported about the extermination of a “Zionist intelligence agent”, who also had a US passport.
Mofaz: Palestinians to Use Kassam-II Rockets
The Palestinians have managed to smuggle Kassam-II rockets into the West Bank, Israel’s Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz revealed Tuesday afternoon. He said he expects the Palestinians to use them against Israeli population centers and airports in the near future.
Additionally, Mofaz said Egypt is helping Israel look for tunnels used by arms smugglers in the Rafah area of the southern Gaza Strip.
Over 30 such tunnels have been discovered recently, Mofaz stated, adding that most of them were dug from Rafah buildings closest to the Egyptian border. Mofaz declared the buildings were used by the Palestinians to carry out thousands of “terrorist” attacks.
He made his remarks at a session of the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee while explaining Israel’s controversial demolition of buildings in Rafah last week.
Mofaz said 23 buildings were destroyed in accordance with a policy to leave inhabited houses untouched. In the past, he asserted, property owners showed up after abandoned buildings were destroyed and protested as a propaganda ploy and means to receive compensation, Israel Radio reported.
Mofaz conveyed that the understandings with the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, achieved several weeks ago, were cancelled. Mofaz added that the resistance organization's fear of Palestinian Authority actions against them have decreased, and at the same time they have received instructions from Iran to carry out attacks.
Fatah: Truce to Continue
Meanwhile, Fatah leader in the West Bank, Hussein al Sheikh, told Israel Radio on Tuesday that the organization had not abandoned the cease-fire declared by Palestinian president Yasser Arafat last month, despite the killing Monday of Tanzim activist Raed al Karmi in Tulkarem.
Al Sheikh said that he had personally spoken to Arafat and that the cease-fire remained in effect. "We have not stopped the cease-fire," said Al Sheikh. "We respect the decisions of Yasser Arafat. But there is a limit to our patience. There is a lot of pressure on us on the ground. We cannot continue suffering much longer from the war policies [of Sharon]."
Al Sheikh's words were echoed by West Bank Security Chief Jibril Rajoub, who told Palestine Radio on Tuesday that the Palestinian Authority remained loyal to the cease-fire despite the killing of al Karmi.
Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas reiterated Tuesday that it would stick to a promise made last month not to carry out suicide attacksin Israel or launch mortar attacks on settlements.
(Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
