Israeli tanks entered Gaza Airport on Tuesday, firing machineguns, while on Monday missile attacks by occupation forces wounded ten people at Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's helicopter facilities in the Gaza Strip and West Bank security posts, said reports.
Early on Tuesday, Israeli tanks moved into the area around Gaza International airport following a day of military strikes in the West Bank and Gaza, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said, cited by CNN.
Erakat said that Israeli bulldozers were tearing up parts of the runway at the airport, a symbol of long-frustrated Palestinian attempts to secure independence.
In the Gaza attacks on Monday, Israel's US-made attack helicopters were seen firing at least 14 missiles in a quick succession, reported Reuters, which added that three of Arafat's helicopters were left in flames not far from the leader's home and main offices.
In addition, Israel's US-made F-16 fighter bombers launched air raids on the West Bank town of Jenin Monday, followed by an Apache raid on Bethlehem, said AFP.
The Israeli attacks followed a weekend of suicide bombings that killed 26 Israelis in occupied Jerusalem and Haifa.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian near Jenin earlier on Monday, according to Reuters. The army said troops thought the man was trying to place a bomb but found none on him. Palestinian officials said he was a farmer going to work.
Washington, which has repeatedly blocked Palestinian efforts to secure international truce monitors in the Occupied Territories, on Monday backed Israel's right to what it termed self-defense.
Responding to US pressure, since Sunday night, Palestinian security forces have rounded up about 110 members of the Islamic Jihad and Hamas, the group that claimed responsibility for twin suicide bombings in a Jerusalem mall that killed 10 young Israelis Saturday and another suicide bombing that killed 15 on a bus in Haifa Sunday, said AP.
The latest Palestinian uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation has seen over 740 Palestinians and 220 Israelis killed. According to a recent report by Haaretz newspaper, over 2,000 Israelis have been wounded, while the figure for wounded Palestinians is between 8,500 and 10,000.
ISRAEL DENIES WANTING TO TOPPLE ARAFAT
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon earlier convened an emergency cabinet meeting to decide the scope of Israel's response to suicide bombings and shootings by Islamic anti-occupation groups, said AP.
The agency quoted Erekat as saying that Sharon's public statements, coupled with the series of airstrikes, signaled an Israeli attempt to ``overthrow the Palestinian Authority.''
However, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer told reporters that Israel had no intention of bringing down Arafat's administration.
But even before the latest attacks, Israeli army analysts warned that Arafat's authority in the narrow, overcrowded Gaza Strip was in danger of collapsing under the strain of the frustrated drive to end the occupation, and Israel's economically devastating blockades.
Sharon, who took office promising to quickly secure the personal safety of ordinary Israelis by taking a hard line, is now publicly speaking of a long struggle.
Palestinians are rebelling against Israel's 34-year occupation and "settlement" of huge swathes of land seized from them in 1967.
According to the UK-based magazine The Economist, Israel has "flouted" the 1993 Oslo peace accords by settling thousands of its citizens on the conquered land.
Meanwhile, the de facto leader of the Palestinian Intifada, Marwan Barghouthi, said after the latest airstrikes that the uprising would not stop.
"This aggression has crossed red lines, but it will not cow the Palestinian people or put out the flames of the Intifada" which began in September 2000, Barghouthi, who is head of the mainstream Fateh movement in the West Bank, told Abu Dhabi satellite television, as quoted by AFP - Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
