Israeli forces kill three Palestinian police
Israeli soldiers killed three Palestinian policemen in Gaza early today and attacked a Palestinian refugee camp, wounding 30 people, after 13 Israelis were hurt in Palestinian attacks, despite efforts by the US and European Union to promote a Middle East peace plan.
Palestinian rescue workers said Israeli soldiers opened fire on a Palestinian police post near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in central Gaza, killing three and wounding two. The Palestinians said the gunfire was unprovoked.
The army said that troops stationed in the area following a “specific alert” identified four armed men in civilian clothes heading toward Netzarim in the early hours of the morning.
The troops opened fire and reported hitting the men.
Earlier, at the Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza, an Israeli helicopter fired a missile at a crowd of people as tanks and bulldozers operated nearby, tearing down buildings.
Khan Younis hospital spokesman Dr Haidar al-Qedra said 30 people were wounded.
The Israeli commander, who gave his name only as Colonel Pinhas, said the helicopter fired at Palestinians who were firing rifles and anti-tank grenades at the Israeli forces.
Tanks and bulldozers destroyed five houses and damaged four others, Palestinian security officials said.
About 60 people were left homeless, said the governor, Hosni Zoaroub. Pinhas, who refused to give his last name, said the houses were used “time and again for terrorist activity, for lookouts and for firing anti-tank weapons”.
The Israelis withdrew after a three-hour operation. Israeli military sources said the purpose of the incursion was to stop the firing of rockets and mortars.
Yesterday, 10 soldiers were wounded, one seriously, in a mortar attack on a Gaza base, and three Israelis were slightly wounded when a homemade rocket fired from Gaza hit a nearby Israeli town, the military said.
Early today, explosions and gunfire were heard north of Gaza City in the area of Beit Lahiya, witnesses said.
The military said no operation was in progress, but soldiers might have fired warning shots.
The violent Islamic Hamas is behind most of the rocket and mortar attacks.
Despite the Israeli incursion, Hamas spokesman Abdel Aziz Rantisi remained defiant. “Hamas will not allow anyone to obstruct its legitimate resistance against (Israeli) occupation” of Palestinian areas.
The renewed violence contrasted with international efforts to persuade the Israelis and Palestinians to stop 31 months of violence and start moving along the path outlined by the “road map” peace plan, backed by the “Quartet” of mediators – the US, European Union, Russia and UN.
But in addition to the violence and deep mistrust between the two warring parties, a split appeared among the mediators.
Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou, whose country holds the rotating European Union presidency, took up where US Secretary of State Colin Powell left off a day earlier, meeting yesterday with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to push the road map.
But while Mr Powell went to the desert oasis of Jericho to meet Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, pointedly snubbing Chairman Yasser Arafat, who is virtually trapped in his West Bank office in Ramallah, Mr Papandreou went to Ramallah, met Mr Abbas, and then saw Mr Arafat.
Israel and the US are boycotting Mr Arafat, charging that he is involved with Palestinian terrorism.
European nations reject that approach, saying that Mr Arafat remains a key player in Middle East diplomacy.
“We want to live in peace with our neighbour Israel and this is our clear decision,” Mr Arafat said, adding that he and Mr Papandreou “have agreed on the necessity to make the Israelis accept the road map in order to push the peace process ahead”.
