Palestinian President Yasser Arafat is considering a national unity government with the participation of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as Palestinian resistance fighters continue their struggle against 34 years of Israeli occupation.
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said Tuesday that Arafat planned to hold a meeting over the "coming days" to try to establish a national dialogue among the diverse Palestinian groups, after Israel vowed to continue killing Palestinian militants it deemed a security threat.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad oppose Arafat's Palestinian Authority agreeing to any form of compromise with Israel to end the conflict, and have previously rejected overtures by Arafat for a coalition.
But in the wake of the sustained Israeli assassination campaign, Abed Rabbo said Arafat wanted to meet with all the organizations' leaders to open lines of communication.
"The Palestinian Authority will form a committee of high officials to start a national dialogue with Palestinian organizations and parties," Abed Rabbo said.
On a trip to Jordan, Arafat also hinted Tuesday he would support a Palestinian national unity government, as proposed the day before by Fateh leader Marwan Barghouthi.
"We would react favorably to approaches from all those who may wish to join the current government," Arafat said when asked about forming a government with Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
PALESTINIAN KILLED IN CAR EXPLOSION, ISRAEL HITS PA BASES IN WEST BANK
A Palestinian was killed Wednesday when Israeli troops fired on his car, causing it to explode, as he allegedly tried to run a roadblock in the Jordan Valley, Israeli military sources said.
Israeli police fired at the man's car, causing it to explode, when he allegedly refused to stop at a roadblock checking traffic coming from Nablus, the military sources said, cited by AFP.
An Israeli soldier at the roadblock was slightly wounded in the leg during the incident.
But Israeli media reports said that the man was killed when he detonated a car bomb after refusing to stop.
Security forces and emergency medical teams are on their way to the scene of the bombing, said the Jerusalem Post.
Two other Israeli soldiers were injured Wednesday by a roadside bomb that exploded alongside their convey in Mount Ebal, overlooking the West Bank city of Nablus, reported Israel’s Army Radio, cited by the Jerusalem Post.
Initial reports said that the bomb was remotely detonated by a cellular telephone.
The report claimed that Israeli soldiers did not open fire on suspicious-looking locations in the wake of the explosion.
The explosion came only hours after Israeli tanks and helicopters blasted PA targets in the West Bank cities of Jericho and Nablus early Wednesday in what Israel claimed was "retaliation" for the killing of a Jewish settler and Palestinian small arms attacks.
Israeli helicopter gunships fired a number of missiles Wednesday morning at a base of the Palestinian presidential guards unit, Force 17, in the West Bank city of Nablus in what it called “retaliation for Tuesday’s killing of a Jewish settler, Israel Radio said.
Zohar Shuragi’s car came under fire near the settlement of Tapuach, south of the autonomous Palestinian town of Nablus, military sources said, cited by AFP and Haaretz.
The military wing of the Fateh movement, Al Aqsa Brigades, took responsibility for the shooting.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces fired five anti-tank missiles overnight Tuesday at a post of the Palestinian general intelligence unit in Jericho, causing some damage, said the Palestinian news agency, WAFA.
The barrage allegedly came in retaliation for Palestinian small arms fire on an Israeli vehicle on the Jericho bypass road.
WAFA added that a tourist area was also shelled.
The paper also claimed that sixteen hand grenades and 19 Molotov cocktails were hurled at an Israeli army vehicle near the Egyptian border.
"In response, [army] soldiers, who were unhurt, shot back," said army spokesman.
Palestinian sources reported that eight people were injured, five of them children, during the exchange of fire, according to the paper.
Since the September 2000 eruption of the latest Palestinian uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation, AFP estimates that Palestinians have killed 128 Israelis with weapons ranging from stones and knives to machineguns and car bombs. Israeli military sources have reported well over 600 injuries to Israelis of Jewish descent.
In the same time period, according to AFP, Israeli soldiers and armed Jewish settlers have killed 13 Arab Israelis and 540 Palestinians with weapons ranging from machineguns and tanks to US-made Apache helicopter gunships and F-16s.
According to an Amnesty International report issued early this year, nearly 100 of the Palestinians killed were children. In addition, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has reported over 14,000 Palestinians wounded.
Jewish author Noam Chomsky, who according to a New York Times Book Review article is “arguably the most important intellectual alive,” has been quoted as saying: “State terrorism is an extreme form of terrorism, generally much worse than individual terrorism because it has the resources of a state behind it.” - Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
