The Israeli army fired anti-tank missiles against a Palestinian security post on the northern border between the Gaza Strip and Israel on Tuesday afternoon, after mortar bombs landed on a nearby Jewish settlement.
Four missiles were fired at a national security border post at Beit Hanun near the Erez crossing with Israel, destroying the building, said reports.
Palestinians have not confirmed mortar attacks Tuesday, and no group has claimed responsibility so far.
Earlier, the Israeli army claimed Palestinians had fired two to three bombs on the Jewish settlement of Nisanit just to the west of Beit Hanun, but that no injuries were reported.
The new confrontation followed an Israeli army bombardment of a Palestinian naval headquarters in Beit Lahia just to the south of Nisanit and a military police station near Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
One Palestinian military doctor was killed and 25 other Palestinians were injured in the strikes, which followed the firing of several mortars on Tuesday morning and Monday night.
Palestinian security officials said they would not be attending a joint Israeli-Palestinian security meeting Israel claims was scheduled for Tuesday night, according to Israel Radio, which said the decision was taken following the attack on Beit Lahia.
Palestinian have slammed Israel's "tyrannical" missile strikes, and renewed their demand for international protection, said AFP.
"We need to defend ourselves," Palestinian general security chief for the Gaza Strip Abdel Razeq al-Majeida said on Palestinian television. "This strike is part of a chain of continuing Israeli tyrannical aggression."
Palestinian cabinet secretary Tayeb Abdel Rahim told reporters: "This requires the international community to provide protection from the tyrannical aggression against our
The doctor, Lieutenant Wail Khuweita, was in Palestinian naval headquarters in the northern Gaza Strip when its medical clinic was hit by a rocket, source told AFP.
Meanwhile, Israeli officers have admitted that they are experiencing problems locating the Palestinian cells firing mortars in the Gaza Strip, said the Israeli paper.
Col. Ghanem Hamada, Israeli commander of the northern brigade in Gaza, told Channel One news that the situation in the Strip is still "far from what it was in Lebanon. These are homemade mortars with insignificant effect," he said.
"There are some cells that are involved in the shooting. We still have a problem locating the cells, but I hope that over a period of time we'll be able to hit them," he added, cited by Haaretz.
ABBAS REPORTED IN WASHINGTON AMID SHARON'S THREATS OF STEPPING UP ATTACK
PLO number two Mahmoud Abbas was reported to have left for the US to hold secret talks with the US officials after Sharon's threats to step up attacks on Palestinians, according to Al Jazeera satellite channel.
The report said that Abbas will take the opportunity of King Abdullah's presence in Washington.
But the station's correspondent in the West Bank said later that Abbas was still in Ramallah. He referred to reports that Abbas's visit related to a medical check and has nothing to do with politics.
However, observers did not rule out that such a visit would take place within the current tense situation.
SHARON: ISRAEL WILL RETALIATE WITHOUT COMPROMISE
Sharon said Monday that Israel is set to "retaliate without compromise to Palestinian attacks which have gone beyond the limits of what can be tolerated.
Sharon warned that Israel would retaliate "without compromise" to continued Palestinian attacks, Israeli state television reported, cited by Haaretz.
The Israeli leader, in a telephone conversation to US Secretary of State Colin Powell, accused the Palestinian Authority of doing nothing to end "the terrorism" and "violence," and warned his military would respond robustly, according to the television report late Monday.
Sharon stressed that the security situation in the region had gone beyond "the limits of what can be tolerated."
The United States has exhorted Sharon and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to stop the violence, and has especially condemned Israel's policy to build more settlements as well as the Israeli army firing on a Palestinian convoy carrying officials returning from security talks last week.
Israel has sent a letter to Powell expressing regret for the shooting, said reports.
Sharon, in his letter, described the shooting near the Beit Hanoun (Erez) checkpoint between the Gaza Strip and Israel following the meeting last Wednesday as "unfortunate."
"The government of Israel regrets that the incident ever took place," according to the letter sent Friday.
The Palestinians are demanding an Israeli apology before holding a further security meeting, following earlier expectations that the two sides would meet again on Monday.
The United States said that Sharon and Arafat had agreed "in principle" to continue security talks despite the postponement.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said both Sharon and Arafat had made their positions clear to Secretary of State Colin Powell in separate weekend phone calls.
Within the same context, Israel's National Religious Party leader, Yitzhak Levy, attacked Sharon on Tuesday, saying that his letter to the US undermined the army, according to Haaretz. "If soldiers are fired on, they have to return fire. The letter was completely out of place," Levy said on Israel Radio.
"And I say that with great understatement. There is absolutely no need for us to apologize. Next time there is a convoy and soldiers are fired on, they will hesitate before returning fire."
PALESTINIANS DEMANDS UN FORCES IN TERRITORIES
A top Palestinian official put another hurdle up against the resumption of talks, saying that negotiations would not resume unless an international force is sent to protect Palestinians in the occupied territories, according to AFP.
"We demand an international protection force, the end of the aggression towards the Palestinians, the dismantlement of settlements and the resumption of negotiations in a set framework," Palestinian minister for international cooperation Nabil Shaath told reporters in Gaza City.
"These are our conditions for restarting negotiations", he added.
The US vetoed a Security Council resolution on March 27 that would have sent such a force to safeguard the Palestinians.
Meanwhile, Faysal Husseini, the Palestinian official responsible for Jerusalem, called Monday for Israel to recognize a Palestinian state before it became too late, said AFP.
"Israel must seize the occasion that the Palestinians have offered it to have its own state on the largest part of Palestine and to recognize a Palestinian state before it is too late," Husseini told reporters in the West Bank town of El-Bireh near Ramallah.
Husseini warned that the number of Palestinians living in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip would eventually outnumber the Jewish population, and doom hopes of a peace deal. "Four million Palestinians live in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In 2010, they will be as numerous as the Israeli Jews. In 2045, they will be the majority," he said.
ANNAN URGES PALESTINIANS, ISRAELIS TO RESUME TALKS IMMEDIATELY
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged Israelis and Palestinians to return to the negotiating table without waiting for an end to the violence, said AFP.
"I know there are those who believe that as long as the violence is going on, one should not talk," Annan said, referring to Sharon's insistence that negotiations would not resume under fire.
"I personally disagree with that. I think that is one more reason to talk and that it underscores the urgency of bringing the parties together," Annan added.
20 PALESTINIANS ARRESTED FOR 'COLLABORATION WITH ISRAEL'
The Palestinian Preventive Security arrested 20 Palestinians on Monday in the West Bank city of Qalqilyah on suspicion of collaborating with Israel, said Haaretz, quoting a report in the Palestinian mouthpiece Al Ayyam.
Those arrested are suspected of having gathered information for Israel and of having helped in the assassination of leading Palestinian militants.
Some 20 militants have been targeted and killed by Israel since the outbreak of the Intifada uprising in September last year.
Iyad Hardan, a leading member of the Islamic Jihad, was killed last week when an explosive device blew up in a public telephone booth he was using in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
The Palestinians accused Israel of having killed Hardan - Albawaba.com
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