An Israeli officer was lightly wounded Friday afternoon when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at a checkpoint near Jenin, Israel Radio reported.
An Israeli Army unit had set up a mobile roadblock and stopped a suspicious-looking car containing three Palestinian men. When the soldiers ordered the car's occupants to get out of the vehicle, one of the Palestinians detonated an explosive belt he was wearing, killing himself and wounding the officer. The other two Palestinians escaped on foot during the confusion of the blast, according to The Jerusalem Post.
Israeli Security sources said the soldiers had averted what was probably intended to be a major attack.
Meanwhile, on the Egyptian border Friday afternoon, Palestinian gunmen fired shots and threw grenades at Israeli soldiers. According to the report, there were no Israeli casualties.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a group linked to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, claimed responsibility for this bombing.
The attack took place as the Israeli-Palestinian joint security committee was meeting in Tel Aviv with U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni. The meeting ended without substantial results. The sides are set to meet again on Sunday.
Earlier Friday, Arafat met with Zinni in Ramallah.
The Israelis and Palestinians were said to be close to agreement, with differences over the order of carrying out elements of the truce package and the time frame.
At the meeting, Zinni was expected to criticize Arafat for not doing enough to halt terror attacks against Israeli citizens.
Meanwhile, Israel praised Friday the decision by the United States to put the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades on a list of "foreign terrorist organizations".
"We can only welcome this decision of the Americans against an organization directly linked to (Palestinian leader) Yasser Arafat and responsible for more than half the terrorist attacks of recent months," an Israeli official told AFP news Agency.
The official in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office added, "We hope that the Americans will not stop there, and will also put on their blacklist Force 17, which is equally involved in terrorism".
Force 17 is Arafat's personal guard and its headquarters and other premises have been regular targets of Israeli air raids and other attacks in retaliation for Palestinian bombings and shootings.
The designation of the Martyrs Brigades as a "foreign terrorist organization", imposing travel and financial sanctions against it and its members, came amidst renewed heavy US criticism of Yasser Arafat over continued anti-Israeli violence.
The move bars members of the group from obtaining US visas and prohibits any fund-raising operations they may have within the United States.
On Friday, Israel’s Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said that all of the understandings worked for by US special envoy to the region, Anthony Zinni were destroyed by Thursday’s suicide bombing in Jerusalem.
Israel Radio quoted Peres as saying that Israel had intended letting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat go to Beirut for next week's Arab summit, scheduled to take place in Beirut, and to Egypt and elsewhere, however the events of the past few days have placed this in question.
"We have not found any evidence that Arafat is trying to stop the terrorism," Peres told a gathering of foreign diplomats. He added that only the loss of Arafat's international legitimacy would have an impact on him.
Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar of Spain, which holds the European Union (EU) presidency, is hoping to meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat next week ahead of an Arab summit that will discuss a Saudi Mideast peace initiative, a government spokesman said Friday.
The meeting could take place on Monday or Tuesday in the southern part of Spain to discuss the Arab League summit in Beirut if Israel allows Yasser Arafat to leave his headquarters in Ramallah in the West Bank, the spokesman added, according to AFP.
Senior Palestinian officials said Wednesday that if Arafat is given permission to leave the West Bank, he has plans to go to Cairo, then to Spain and then head on to Beirut where an Arab summit is scheduled to be held between March 27 to 28. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
