Israel kills 1,000th Palestinian in conflict
Israeli forces clashed with Palestinians today at a refugee camp and entered a town after a woman suicide bomber blew herself up at an Israeli army checkpoint in the West Bank.
At the Balata refugee camp next to Nablus, a gunman was killed and five wounded in clashes with Israeli forces that began after midnight and continued until after daybreak, witnesses said.
The gunman was the 1,000th person killed on the Palestinian side since violence erupted on September 28, 2000. On the Israeli side, 288 people have been killed.
Also, Israeli tanks entered the town of Jenin from three directions, Palestinians said, surrounding the refugee camp at the western edge of the town. Three Palestinian police were killed in exchanges of fire with the Israelis, Palestinians said. The Israeli military had no comment.
Palestinians said Israeli forces fired two missiles at Balata, knocking out electricity in the camp, a stronghold of militias linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement.
Israeli forces moved into a Nablus street across from the camp several days ago, taking over apartment buildings and parking tanks along the street. Up to now, Israeli forces have stayed out of the camp.
Militias headquartered in Balata have taken responsibility for many recent attacks against Israelis.
Al Aqsa Brigades commander Nasser Awais said hundreds of gunmen and bombers were ready to confront the Israelis. ‘‘Israeli troops will not enter the camp except over our dead bodies,’’ he said.
Yesterday a woman set off explosives at an Israeli army roadblock at the entrance to the West Bank on a road between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
‘‘The woman suicide bomber got out of the car and blew herself up,’’ said the Israeli police commander in the West Bank, Shachar Ayalon. He said two other Palestinians who were in the car were badly injured in the blast. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
A woman suicide bomber is a rarity, though more than 30 Palestinian men have carried out such attacks.
On January 27, a woman blew herself up in downtown Jerusalem, killing herself and an Israeli, but it was unclear if she planned to commit suicide.
The violence persisted despite local efforts to calm the tensions and a Saudi proposal to end the decades-old Israel-Arab conflict.
Israeli and Palestinian security commanders were meeting later today to consider the situation in the Gaza Strip, said Palestinian West Bank security commander Jibril Rajoub.
On Tuesday, the security chiefs had a stormy meeting, trading demands and charges. Rajoub said tempers flared several times. He said the Palestinians asked the Israelis for a timetable for lifting the many roadblocks in the West Bank and Gaza, imposed shortly after the violence began in September 2000, stopping Palestinians from moving around the territories and crippling their economy.
Israel told the Palestinians that they must dismantle the Fatah militias, said Israeli defence ministry spokesman Yarden Vatikay. He said Israel would ease restrictions in places where Palestinian security takes concrete action against militants.
Meanwhile, Javier Solana, the European Union’s top diplomat, travelled from Israel to Saudi Arabia yesterday to hear details of a Saudi initiative to solve the Middle East conflict.
Solana met Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, who is said to be preparing a proposal based on an exchange: Israel would withdraw from all of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, and the entire Arab world would make peace with the Jewish state.
Palestinians welcomed the proposal, saying it mirrored their own offer to Israel of full peace in exchange for full withdrawal.
Israel was cautious, welcoming the fact that the Saudis were getting involved in peacemaking, but rejecting the idea of a total pullout and expressing scepticism over the ability of the Saudis to persuade all Arab nations to go along with the idea.
