Israel has been ignoring mounting international criticism of its escalating military campaign against the Palestinians, continuing around the clock land, air and sea attacks against targets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israel's aggressive actions continue despite the harshest criticism voiced Wednesday by United States Secretary of State Colin Powell, who stated Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was pursuing a futile policy of seeing how many Palestinians could be killed.
For his part, Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat said Thursday “if they (the Israelis) believe there is anyone in this land who fears their tanks or planes…they are wrong."
Meanwhile, the PA has asked for immediate U.S. intervention. "They (the Israelis) are imposing a daily war against our people, our leadership and the peace process," said Arafat’s adviser Nabil Abu Rdeineh.
On the ground, at least 13 Palestinians were killed Thursday in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In a separate incident Thursday evening, an Israeli settler was seriously injured in a shooting attack near the West Bank village of Harawa, south of Hebron.
Tulkarem
Palestinian sources said Israeli troops killed at least seven Palestinians and wounded at least 40 others in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, where Israeli soldiers conducted a house-to-house search for Palestinian activists, weapons and explosives.
The Israeli activity in Tulkarem included massive ground assaults on the city’s two refugee camps. Israeli armored corps troops streamed into this northern West Bank city seizing the two refugee camps, imposing a curfew and conducting house-to-house searches.
In the Tulkarem camp, Israeli troops seized a U.N.-run school as a command post, said Hamdi Dardouk, Palestinian intelligence chief in Tulkarem.
Electricity was cut off from the entire city as heavy fighting was reported around the refugee camps.
In another incident, Israeli forces killed Mohammed Anani, a prominent operative of the Islamic Jihad group, in a raid on his home in the West Bank village of Siris, Palestinians said.
Elsewhere, Israeli jets have bombed throughout the day Palestinian police headquarters in Gaza and the headquarters of Yasser Arafat's presidential guard in Bethlehem.
Israeli helicopters fired five missiles at a Palestinian intelligence headquarters in the town of Halhoul near the West Bank city of Hebron on Thursday, injuring at least three people, a Palestinian intelligence chief said.
Arafat
Arafat was unhurt when missiles slammed into a building at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah late on Wednesday as he met European Union envoy Miguel Angel Moratinos.
"The Palestinians are just like mountains. No one can shake the Palestinians. If they believe there is anyone in this land who fears their tanks or planes....they are wrong," Arafat told reporters on Thursday.
Arafat also renewed a call for a resumption of peace talks.
The PA leader, who has been confined to Ramallah by Israeli forces for three months, had been on the phone to Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres at the time of the attack.
"Shimon, I'm being bombed," an Israeli newspaper quoted Arafat as saying. It said Peres replied: "I am very sorry. I will do all I can to stop the bombing immediately."
For his part, Nabil Abu Rdeineh has said that US Secretary of State Colin Powell's statements, which clearly criticize Sharon's policies, were very important and useful. He called for US Envoy Anthony Zinni's return to the region.
In statements to AFP, Arafat’s advisor said Zinni should be sent quickly to the region “to implement the Tenet recommendations and Mitchell report in order to escape the current crisis and stop the serious repercussions, which will affect everybody.”
Gaza
At least two Palestinians were killed in gun battles with Israeli troops in central and northern Gaza on Thursday, Palestinian doctors said. Two other Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli troops late Wednesday as they tried to lay explosives, the Israeli army said.
Also Thursday, Israeli gunboats fired missiles at a Palestinian police roadblock near the Gaza City coast and wounded 13 policemen, three critically, Palestinian security officials said. Other gunboats fired at Arafat's seaside office. The Israeli military said its forces attacked "terrorist targets" including a police post. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
