On Monday, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is related to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, claimed responsibility for two shooting attacks that left two settlers dead and at least 12 injured.
Neve Ya`akov Attack
On Monday evening shooting attack took place in Neve Ya`akov, a Jewish settlement which Israel regards as a northern neighbourhood of Jerusalem. At least ten Israelis injured. Three of the wounded are reportedly policemen. Five of the wounded are reportedly in serious condition.
A gun battle broke out between an armed Palestinian and israeli security forces on the scene. Jerusalem police officers from the adjacent station charged the Palestinian, opening fire and neutralizing him, Jerusalem police chief Cmdr. Mickey Levy said.
Gunfire also hit nearby residential buildings during the battle between the Palestinian gunman and Israeli police officers.
Israeli security forces searched for a second gunman believed to have fled the scene after the attack, but police said later that there was only one shooter.
Israel's Channel One TV reported that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was holding security consultations following these latest wave of shooting attacks. It also cited Israeli security sources saying that security understandings reached with the Palestinians were now void.
Tekoa - Nokdim Attack
Two settlers were killed and two others injured in a shooting attack Monday afternoon between the West Bank settlements of Tekoa and Nokdim, south of Bethlehem. One of the injured was in serious condition and the other suffered light wounds.
Earlier, Palestinians fired at an Israeli vehicle in the Hebron mount area Monday noon, moderately to seriously wounding one settler who was traveling in the car with his family, according to The Jerusalem Post.
The family was on the way to a Jewish celebration when Palestinians fired at the car near the Zif junction, hitting the teenager in the back.
The Palestinian attackers apparently escaped toward Hebron in their vehicle.
Palestinians Killed
Israeli soldiers manning a roadblock south of Nablus early Monday injured a Palestinian woman, Maysoun Alhayek, about to give birth and killed her husband, Mohammed Abdullah Dahoud Alhayek, 22. In a separate West Bank incident, soldiers shot dead a woman near the West Bank city of Tulkarem who tried to stab a soldier, Palestinian security and hospital sources said.
In the Nablus-area incident, the sources said the couple had been on their way to a hospital for the man's wife to give birth when soldiers fired at their vehicle near the Balata refugee camp on the outskirts of Nablus.
The woman, hit in the shoulder, was evacuated to a hospital and her condition and that of the fetus were not immediately known. The Israeli fire seriously wounded the woman’s father-in-law.
It was the second shooting of a pregnant Palestinian woman near Nablus in two days. On Sunday, a woman in labor was fired on from an Israeli post overlooking the road where the woman was being taken to hospital to give birth. The army later said the Sunday incident stemmed from warnings of a planned suicide bombing in the area.
Responding to the Monday shooting, Israeli military sources said soldiers had "signaled a car to stop at a roadblock near the Nablus refugee camp of Balata, but the car reversed and tried to circumvent the roadblock and the soldiers opened fire." The military sources said the incident was being investigated.
Near Tulkarem, the army said that soldiers fired warning shots near a woman who tried to stab an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint. When the woman continued to advance, soldiers then shot and killed her, military sources said.
There have been a number of mistaken shootings by tense Israeli soldiers at roadblocks in recent days, after a deadly ambush by Palestinian gunmen at a checkpoint last week in the West Bank. Six soldiers were killed in that guerilla attack.
Solana
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat should have "total freedom of movement" as soon as possible, EU foreign policy Chief Javier Solana said in Jerusalem on Monday in implicit criticism of Israel, according to AFP.
"Arafat should have freedom of movement - total freedom of movement”. "I don't think it is a wise decision to give him half movement," he said, after the Israeli cabinet's decision on Sunday to ease but not lift the blockade imposed on Arafat since December 3.
"He has to have full freedom - it is important for him to do his job, from my point of view," Solana told reporters after meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
"The sooner he has freedom of movement, the better."
Israel has said its decision Sunday to let Yasser Arafat leave his compound but not the West Bank town of Ramallah was a goodwill gesture, although it angered the Palestinian Authority.
Israeli tanks pulled out of the area around Arafat's compound in Ramallah early Monday, but the Palestinians nonetheless suspended security discussions with Israelis aimed at stemming violence.
Solana arrived in Israel late Sunday to start a five-day tour of the Middle East in a bid to ease the escalating violence throughout the region. He is scheduled to visit also the Palestinian territories, Egypt and Jordan.
On Thursday, Solana is scheduled to head for Egypt for talks with President Hosni Mubarak, then he travels to Jordan on Friday to meet with King Abdullah II. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
