US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday that Israeli and Palestinian leaders had pledged to cooperate with the new US special envoy to the Middle East. Meanwhile, Israeli forces entered a Palestinian refugee camp in the Gaza Strip and razed four houses before withdrawing, said reports.
Powell, who said peace negotiations cannot go forward so long as the fighting continues in the Middle East, announced Monday he would send retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni to the region as his special adviser, said CNN.
In a speech Monday, Powell criticized Israel's killing of Palestinian civilians and said Jewish settlement construction on land occupied in 1967 had to stop because it "pre-empts and prejudges the outcome of negotiations, and, in doing so, cripples chances for real peace and security," according to the UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph.
As a sign of the Bush administration's commitment, Powell said Zinni would remain in the region, working with both parties on a sustainable ceasefire, according to the nework.
Powell said he had assurances from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat that they would cooperate with Zinni, added CNN.
Zinni, 58, could use his military background to talk strategy with Sharon, a retired general best known for allegedly ignoring the massacre by Israeli allies of several hundred Palestinian refugees in Lebanon's Sabra and Shatilla camps in the 1980s.
Zinni can also speak to Arafat in Arabic, noted AP, which said the special envoy traveled in the Middle East and studied Arabic during four years as the top US military commander in the area in the 1990s.
MORE HOMELESS REFUGEES IN GAZA
Meanwhile on the ground, Israeli forces early Tuesday entered a Palestinian refugee camp in the Gaza Strip and destroyed four houses before withdrawing, the military and witnesses told AP.
The military said two abandoned buildings were demolished because of frequent shooting attacks, while Palestinians told the agency the demolitions were unprovoked.
One of the homes belonged to Nazmia Abu Jazar, 35, a mother of eight. ``Where do I go now with my children?'' she asked, according to the agency.
According to local and international human rights groups, Israeli forces have frequently resorted to demolishing homes during Palestinian uprisings against decades of military occupation.
In addition, the Israeli army has dug a series of trenches around sections of the West Bank town of Jenin, which it invaded and partially occupied last month, Palestinian and Israeli officials said Tuesday, quoted by AFP.
Palestinian security officials said that, to the northwest of the town, close to the northern boundary with Israel, a five-kilometer long trench had been created to a depth of two meters.
Other trenches stretched for two kilometers (to the northeast and for three kilometers to the south, they told the agency.
According to the Tel Aviv-based Haaretz daily, the decision to ring the town was reached after Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer convened a meeting Tuesday afternoon in his Tel Aviv office.
And according to the Palestinian official news agency (WAFA), the Israeli army tightened its blockade on the West Bank city of Nablus, expanding a checkpoint set up 50 meters away from two Palestinian schools in Tel, to the west of the city.
The Palestinian agency said that the Israeli forces barred residents from entering the city, "which has become totally isolated from the other provinces."
Israeli army experts have recently gone on record saying that the blockades of Palestinian areas, especially Gaza, could lead to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority and the explosion of popular discontent in a massive uprising.
The blockades, a form of collective punishment for the Palestinian community, have resulted in widespread unemployment and billions of dollars in losses for area businesses.
Meanwhile, in nearly 14 months of fighting, 758 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 197 people on the Israeli side.
Israeli premier Sharon, who took office promising to guarantee the safety of ordinary Israelis within a short period of time, recently told his Likud Party inner circle to prepare for a long fight - Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
