Israeli aircraft strike Gaza

Gaza City |Reuters | Gulf News 15-07-2002

An Israeli F-16 warplane attacked the home of a senior Palestinian militant yesterday but he escaped without injury seconds before missiles slammed into the building in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian witnesses said.

At least five people were wounded in what some witnesses said was an attack on the residence of Youssef Abed al-Wahab, a leader of the Islamic group Hamas in southern Gaza.

An Israeli army spokesman said the target was a building owned by Wahab and used to make bombs for attacks on Israeli troops in Gaza, as well for meetings of Hamas operatives.

Witnesses said Wahab bolted from the house near the town of Khan Younis immediately after hearing the sound of aircraft. The house was destroyed and four nearby buildings were damaged.

Hamas has carried out dozens of suicide attacks in Israel and its members have been targeted by Israeli forces during the 21-month-old Palestinian uprising against occupation.

During the air strike, a Palestinian on trial nearby for allegedly betraying three Hamas militants to Israeli forces who killed them last month was shot dead in the courtroom by a vengeful relative of the slain trio, witnesses said.

In the West Bank, a 19-year-old Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli troops when they entered the Balata refugee camp, a militant bastion, to enforce a curfew in the Nablus area and were confronted by a stone-throwing crowd, witnesses said.

Earlier in the day, Israel said it had seized a Palestinian on his way out of the West Bank to commit a suicide bombing and that its soldiers must remain in Palestinian-administered areas of the territory reoccupied to prevent such attacks.

The incident late on Saturday put central Israel on a high state of alert, a reminder of violence still simmering despite a near-total Israeli military closure of the West Bank and curfew imposed on hundreds of thousands of Palestinian residents.

Israel reoccupied seven West Bank cities three-and-a-half weeks ago after two suicide bombings in as many days killed 26 Israelis, the latest in scores of such attacks during the Palestinian uprising for independence.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said yesterday Foreign Minister Shimon Peres would resume meetings with reform-minded Palestinian ministers "in the coming days" to discuss how to ease security and economic curbs on the Palestinian population.

Steps to do so, urged by the dovish Peres, snagged on Saturday when Sharon suspended the dialogue upon learning that a close Arafat ally had joined one session, Israeli media said.

Sharon blames Arafat for suicide violence, demands a new Palestinian leadership "not compromised by terror" and has banned any Israeli contact with him or his key allies.

The Palestinian Authority says it has nothing to do with attacks on Israeli civilians and has repeatedly condemned them.

Israeli media said Sharon, in interrupting the dialogue, was also concerned Peres was steering the talks towards peacemaking issues without cabinet approval, something the right-wing premier says cannot be done while Arafat rules.

Palestinian ministers who have met Peres were recently appointed by Arafat under pressure from the United States, the key Middle East peace broker, for democratic reforms to enable renewed talks with Israel on a Palestinian state.

An Israeli political source said Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, in talks in Egypt on Monday, would try to win over President Hosni Mubarak to the idea of removing Arafat.

Ben-Eliezer will travel to Alexandria as "part of Israeli efforts to convince the international community, and especially the Arab world, that Arafat must leave the political stage for there to be progress toward peace," the source said.

Mubarak has said no one but Arafat, 73, icon of Palestinian nationhood aspirations since the 1960s, carries the weight on the Palestinian side to conclude a peace deal with Israel.

The United States has also ostracised Arafat in recent weeks and made clear it wants the Palestinian leader out of power.