Israeli army imposed Tuesday a curfew on a Palestinian-controlled village and penetrated into another, and arrested 11 Palestinians in Gaza. Meanwhile, DFLP has rejected Arafat's call for a halt to all anti-Israeli attacks, Syria accused Arafat of asking for "capitulation" and Larsen urges Israelis to benefit from his speech.
Violence Continues
Israeli army forces imposed a curfew on Deir Abu Mishal village, northwest of west bank town of Ramallah. Israeli soldiers were storming many Palestinian houses causing a mess inside them. This is the second time the Israeli army storm into the village in 24 hours, Palestinian News Agency (WAFA) reported.
The agency also said Israeli army troops penetrated into Palestinian-controlled areas in Tobas village in Jenin, north of the west bank. More than two armored vehicles entered the village from the eastern side and occupied some houses.
On the other hand, the Israeli radio said that Palestinians fired a mortar shell at a Jewish settlement in Gosh Qatif, as well as four hand grenades and gun fires against an Israeli military position on the Egyptian-Israeli borders near Rafah in Gaza.
Early morning, an Israeli settler was slightly wounded when his car came under gun fire in Hawwareh village near west bank town of Nablus, said the Israeli radio.
It quoted Israeli military sources as saying the settler was aided on the spot before he was taken to hospital to continue treatment. The Israeli army, added the sources, combed the area under their security control.
11 Palestinian arrested
Moreover, Israeli army forces arrested 11 Palestinians in Gaza Strip.
The Kuwaiti News Agency (KUNA) said that Israeli army forces arrested 6 at a checkpoint near Kfar Darom settlement in southern Gaza Strip Tuesday, eyewitnesses said. They told KUNA the Israeli soldiers asked the six Palestinians to get out of the taxis they were in, arrested them and took them to an unknown destination. The Israeli forces, positioning in Kfar Darom settlement, bombarded Palestinian houses in Deir Al Balah and damaging several homes.
Palestinian security sources told AFP that the Israeli army arrested another 6 Palestinian in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip after shooting them and injuring one seriously.
Meanwhile, ten-year-old boy seriously wounded by Israeli army gunfire in Jenin, Palestinian reports said.
DFLP, Syria Reject Arafat’s Speech
The political developments: the reactions on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s speech continue. DFLP has rejected a halt to anti-Israeli attacks. Syria accused Arafat of asking for "capitulation". While Larsen urges Israelis to benefit from his speech.
DFLP
The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) rejected Arafat's call for a halt to all anti-Israeli attacks.
"Arafat's call for a halt to all armed operations was issued following a request by the United States and (Israeli Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon to sabotage the Intifada and national resistance against (Israeli) occupation and colonization," the radical Damascus-based secular movement said in a statement.
Nayef Hawatmeh's organization also said that "the Palestinian Authority's decisions made without consulting other leaders of the Intifada and Palestinian organization are not binding for the latter."
On Sunday, Arafat made a televised address calling for a halt to all armed operations against Israel, which he urged to return to the negotiation table.
The DFLP, which has claimed several anti-Israeli attacks since the Palestinian uprising erupted nearly 15 months ago, called on all the Palestinian parties involved in the conflict to discuss means of unifying the resistance policy against Israel.
The DFLP is one of the main political components of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which also includes the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and is dominated by Arafat's won Fatah organization.
On Monday, the Islamist Hamas movement which has claimed responsibility for the bulk of anti-Israeli suicide attacks, as well as the PFLP, which assassinated an Israeli cabinet minister in October, also dismissed Arafat's call.
Syria
Syria's official radio accused Arafat of asking for "capitulation" in calling for a halt to anti-Israeli attacks, adding to criticism from other media.
"How can the Palestinians be asked to stop the Intifada and capitulate while Israel proclaims daily its refusal to hand the occupied territories back to their owners?" the radio asked in a commentary.
Although it did not name Arafat, the commentary was seen as the first response by the Syrian leadership to the Palestinian leader's speech on Sunday which has drawn mixed reactions across the Arab world.
The radio said Israel and the United States had brought pressure on Arafat's Palestinian Authority to "take measures likely to divide the Palestinians and aid (Israeli Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon to carry out his criminal plans."
But it warned, "even if the Palestinian Authority executes every Israeli order by throwing resistance fighters into prison, Ariel Sharon's government will not be satisfied, and will demand further unjust measures."
The official Syrian press for its part said that the Palestinian people have "the right to defend themselves" against Israeli occupation.
"The Palestinian people, who own the land and whose cause is legitimate and backed up by international law, have the right to defend themselves against Israel, which is an aggressive and terrorist occupation force," the government-run Tishrin daily wrote.
"Naive is he who believes that Israeli violence is in retaliation for Palestinian resistance," Tishrin said, arguing that "even if these operations definitively stopped, Israel would find other pretexts to carry on with its violent and inhuman policy towards the Palestinians."
The mouthpiece of the ruling Baath party expressed a similar view to Tishrin, adding that Washington's position had encouraged Israeli aggression "and left no alternative to the Palestinians but to resist."
"Banking on a change in Israel's policy is useless and will have negative and destructive repercussions on the rights and interests of the Arabs and Palestinians," the Al Baath daily said.
It is clear that Israel does not want a just peace ... and its violent and barbaric practices will continue," the paper added.
Syria harbors 10 radical Palestinian groups, including the Hamas and the Popular and Democratic Fronts for the Liberation of Palestine, all three of which have rejected Arafat's call.
Larsen
UN secretary general Kofi Annan's special envoy for Palestinian territories, Tarje Roed-Larsen, called on the Israeli government to seize the opportunity, created by Arafat's speech.
Larsen, in a statement issued by his office last night, said the conflicting parties "should conduct swift and intensive efforts to seize the opportunity of chairman Arafat's speech and the security efforts he is undertaking."
Larsen described Arafat's speech as "historic and important and forms a turning point towards bringing back calm and return for the table of negotiations." His statement was released after his meetings with Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, his foreign minister Shimon Peres and Arafat. The statement said that Larsen informed Peres that "it is vital that Israel admits of the ability and chances of Arafat's speech and it (Tel Aviv) should respond in a similar manner."
The UN envoy said that violence would not "lead to anything for both parties and will not lead to peace and security." Larsen said the "deliberate killings at this sensitive moments will not serve the progress in the peace process at a time the Palestinians are carrying out extraordinary efforts to calm the situations down," in reference to the Israeli assassination policy – Albawab.com
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