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Israeli troops destroy Gaza factories |
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GAZA CITY/MADRID, 27 July — Israeli tanks stormed a town outside Gaza City yesterday, blowing up metal factories and destroying a police post in the first operation here since a controversial airstrike, sources on both sides said. Israel also renewed its offer to resume a dialogue with the Palestinian Authority, which remained skeptical, while militants vowed to avenge the aerial bombing of a teeming Gaza City neighborhood that killed 15 people, including nine children. In Gaza City, some 5,000 supporters of the resistance group Hamas held a demonstration and promised to avenge their military wing leader, Salah Shehade, who was targeted by the bloody strike. "Our response will be like an earthquake," said senior Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Al-Rantissi, adding that the rally was a pledge of allegiance to the new chief of the Ezzeddine Al-Qassam Brigades, who was not named. Thousands of Palestinians marched through the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza in support of a new commander who was to succeed Shehade as head of Hamas’ military wing. "We hope that God blesses you and gives you the power to avenge us very soon," Rantissi said at the rally. He did not identify the new leader of the Brigades. "Take our bodies and take our blood and bring the revenge every day and everywhere — in Haifa, in Tel Aviv, in Hadera," he said, naming Israeli cities. Don’t give them any mercy." Security was tight across Israel yesterday, as people braced for the expected retaliation. Curfews in most of the occupied major West Bank towns were in force throughout the day after being sporadically eased previously. In Qalqilya, in the northern West Bank, a Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli troops who were carrying out house-to-house searches in his neighborhood, medical sources said. Four Jewish settlers were shot dead and another was seriously injured last evening when militants ambushed two cars traveling south of the West Bank city of Hebron, an army spokeswoman and other sources said. In the Gaza Strip, seven Israeli tanks and three bulldozers stormed Al-Zeitun, south of Gaza City, moving nearly one kilometer into Palestinian-controlled territory, security sources and witnesses said. Troops destroyed a Palestinian security position and two other buildings, including a domestic gas delivery depot and a house, PA security sources said. Palestinian officials have said they were close to winning a truce from all militant factions but it was sabotaged by the Gaza attack on Tuesday. Yesterday’s Israeli operation suggested Israel would not flinch from new operations in the densely populated Gaza Strip. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak yesterday insisted that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat be included in any future Middle East peace negotiations, warning his removal would spark chaos in the region. "Arafat is the democratically elected president. I don’t think he can be replaced," Mubarak told a joint press conference after talks with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar in Madrid. "It would be chaos ... even more chaos, violence, clashes and instability in the region," the Egyptian leader added, rejecting a call made by US President George W. Bush last month to sideline the Palestinian leader. Mubarak was in Madrid after talks with French President Jacques Chirac the day before in Paris to drive home Arab proposals for Middle East peace, visiting the two EU countries most sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. Chirac also met yesterday with Jordan’s King Abdallah in the French capital for talks centered on the organization of an international Middle East peace conference to be backed by France. The French leader said the ministerial-level conference should be scheduled as quickly as possible given the escalation in violence, but Cairo and Amman have been more cautious, stressing the importance of careful planning. Leaders meeting in Paris and Madrid again slammed Israel’s raid in Gaza City. "We’ve reached the same conclusion, France and Jordan: violence leads nowhere, and the pursuit of barbaric terrorist attacks and military operations that kill numerous civilians cannot be tolerated," Chirac said, quoted by his aides. In Madrid, Aznar called the deadly airstrike a "serious step backward", while Mubarak again complained that the raid came as the Palestinians were working with Hamas to end anti-Israeli attacks. At the United Nations, Arab nations pressed the Security Council again yesterday to pass a resolution on Israel’s deadly air raid on Gaza City, and the Council agreed to discuss the matter behind closed doors. Palestinian UN observer Nasser Al-Kidwa said Arab envoys had not yet decided whether to seek a quick vote on their draft resolution, which demands the "withdrawal of the Israeli occupying forces from Palestinian cities" and a cessation of all violence, military actions and "and acts of terror."
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