A Palestinian man, Muhammad Ali Othman, 22, was killed early Saturday and another was seriously injured in a gunfight with Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip town of Rafah, Palestinian sources said.
Israeli tanks and armored bulldozers advanced 200 meters into Rafah, shelling houses and firing machine guns, according to Palestinian sources. The army said forces were searching the area, which is under Israeli security control, to expose tunnels for smuggling weapons.
On Friday night Israeli soldiers killed two other Palestinians, one in a checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus. The army claimed the man was armed and suspiciously approaching the soldiers near.
Another armed Palestinian, according to the Israeli army, was killed near the Kissufim checkpoint in the Gaza Strip. But Palestinian police who retrieved the body said the man was a civilian and not an armed activist. Palestinian sources said two other people killed by Israeli forces in the city of Khan Yunis Friday night.
In another incident, Israeli police freed Friday the Palestinian minister for Jerusalem, Ziyad Abu Ziyad, after detaining him for three hours in the occupied eastern part of the city.
Israeli police had said they detained Ziyad because he had entered Jerusalem without permission, but that they would release him after questioning. Ziad savaged his treatment at the hands of Israeli police upon his release.
Meanwhile, the Israeli-Palestinian joint security committee meeting, mediated by U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni, ended Friday evening without an agreement. The sides were unable to agree on ways to implement the Tenet plan and did not reach an understanding regarding a cease-fire. The two sides agreed to meet again on Sunday.
Palestinian security chief Jibril Rajoub said the meeting was very tense, with the Israelis focusing mostly on the bombings while the Palestinians complained about Israeli army incursions into Palestinian territory.
"Our position was clear, end the occupation and you get the security," Rajoub said. "As long as there are tanks, it will make the Palestinians angry, the humiliations at the checkpoints make the Palestinians angry."
Rajoub said the Americans had written an analysis of the two sides' papers but had made no proposals of their own.
The White House said Friday that conditions have not yet been met for Vice President Richard Cheney to meet Arafat due to the continued attacks against Israel. Later, US President George W. Bush said that this meeting "could happen, if and when" the Palestinian leader quells violence against Israelis.
"A meeting could happen, if and when Chairman Arafat performs, does what he's supposed to do," Bush said during a joint press conference with Mexican President Vicente Fox. "Those conditions have been laid out ... and now General Zinni is trying to determine whether or not he (Arafat) is going to do what he said he would do," Bush said.
However, more than half of the U.S. Senate urged Cheney on Friday not to meet with Arafat until the Palestinian leader does more to curb the violence in the Middle East.
The letter to President Bush, signed by 52 senators, was made public Friday. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
