Israeli Troops Kill Palestinian on Gaza Border

News, October 2003, www.aljazeerah.info

Arab News, Agencies

GAZA, 30 October 2003 — Israeli soldiers killed an unarmed Palestinian and wounded another yesterday near Israel’s boundary with the Gaza Strip, military sources said.

In the West Bank, Palestinian gunmen fired on an Israeli car and wounded one of its two occupants, sources said, in an attack claimed by a militant group linked to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction.

Persistent violence has sidelined a US-backed Middle East peace “road map” plan which charts steps leading to the establishment by 2005 of a Palestinian state on lands occupied by Israel in a 1967 Middle East war.

The sources said Israeli soldiers opened fire on the two Palestinians after they entered an off-limits area in north Gaza used in the past by gunmen to attack troops or try to infiltrate into Israel.

“They were not armed but had a mobile phone and maps and drawings of the area, proof that they were trying to gather intelligence for the next terrorist attack,” one source said. Palestinian security officials identified the dead man as Mohammed Aw’ad, 26, and said he was affiliated to the Islamic Jihad group.

His body was handed over to Palestinian medics, while the second Palestinian was in an Israeli hospital under guard.

The incident occurred near Kibbutz Nahal Oz on the Israeli side of the border with Gaza, an area where Palestinians planted an anti-tank land mine earlier this month and tried to carry out a suicide bombing last week.

Four other Palestinians were shot and wounded by Israeli troops in the southern Gaza refugee camp of Rafah yesterday while trying to repair electricity lines damaged in Israeli Army raids earlier this month, local medics and witnesses said.

Israeli military sources said Israeli forces had responded to shots fired at them by gunmen in the neighborhood.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said it carried out the attack on the Israeli car near the Israeli Army’s Jalameh checkpoint on the West Bank’s northern frontier with Israel.

Also yesterday, Salah Asaad, 16, from the Nusseirat refugee camp in Gaza, died from wounds sustained in an Israeli air strike on Oct. 20. The attack killed 12 Palestinians, both militants and civilians.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei said yesterday he planned to hold talks with groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad to discuss the possibility of a truce with Israel.

“It must be clear to all that the Palestinian dialogue is ongoing and will not stop,” he told reporters. “We welcome a meeting with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other forces.”

Asked if would travel to meet the groups in their Gaza stronghold, Qorei said “yes,” but did not specify a date.

Meanwhile, Israel began easing its strict closure of the Palestinian territories yesterday after warnings the restrictions were merely fostering extremism.

The move came following pressure from the top brass, who expressed fears that the ongoing pressure on the Palestinian population would lead to severe unrest in the territories.

Starting yesterday, civilian vehicles were allowed to move between the towns and cities in the West Bank and around 3,000 Palestinian tradesmen and merchants were given permission to enter Israel.

Anther 1,500 Palestinian workers over the age of 21 were given permission to enter the industrial area of Atarot just north of Jerusalem.

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said it was necessary to implement such measures, but only as long as they did not harm Israel’s security. “We know that most of the Palestinian population is not involved in terror and we want to take every possible step to ease life for the population,” the radio quoted him as saying.

The army had no immediate comment on the moves, saying an official announcement would be issued later.

According to Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot, the step to ease conditions came after warnings by the military’s top brass that the ongoing curfew and closure would strengthen groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Chief of Staff Gen. Moshe Yaalon had recommended the curfew be eased, particularly in quiet areas, but his recommendations were blocked by Mofaz and Avi Dichter, the head of Israel’s Shin Beth internal security service, until after Israel’s local elections, the paper said.

Voter turnout at Tuesday’s elections hit a record low, with only 41 percent of the 3.8 million Israelis entitled to vote bothering to cast their ballot — a sharp drop from the 57 percent who voted in the last elections in 1998.

Despite the low turnout, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Likud party expressed satisfaction with the results. Campaign manager Arik Brami said the party was happy that 84 out of 156 councils remained in its hands.

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

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