|
Mideast Death Toll Tops 800 in Fresh Israeli Raids
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, Sept 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The death toll after almost a year of the al-Aqsa Intifada, or uprising, in the Middle East topped 800 Thursday as Israel tanks and troops raided a string of Palestinian towns, while U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told both sides to use the tragedy in his country as a catalyst to renew peace talks, news agencies reported.
Three Palestinians were shot dead and 13 others injured as Israeli occupation forces forced their way into West Bank towns overnight, Palestinian security sources said, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The reported fatalities occurred during an Israeli military incursion in the northern West Bank town of Jenin, launched in retaliation for the killing of an Israeli settler woman the evening before.
Israeli tanks and bulldozers ploughed down the local government headquarters in the autonomous Palestinian town, the officials said.
"Israeli armored, infantry and engineering units completed an attack on the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority's forces and destroyed a wing used by Force-17 and General Intelligence," an Israeli occupation army spokesman said to the Israeli daily
Ha'aretz.
It was the second Israeli raid on Jenin in two days. On Wednesday, Israeli troops killed 10 Palestinians during armed incursions into areas in and around the town.
Meanwhile, Israeli occupation troops, supported by tanks and helicopters, took control of the Palestinian-ruled city of Jericho in the West Bank Thursday, also entering under night cover, Palestinian security forces said.
As fighting raged in Jenin, 12 Israeli tanks accompanied by bulldozers moved two kilometers inside Palestinian-ruled territory to strike at a training center used by Palestinian forces in Jericho, a Palestinian security official said,
Ha'aretz added.
Sporadic gunfire could still be heard after Israeli occupation forces moved into the autonomous zone around Jericho in simultaneous invasions from the city's north, south and east, the Palestinian sources said.
All Palestinian security offices are located in the Palestinian headquarters in Jericho, near the Jordanian border with the Dead Sea, according to sources.
The tanks entering from the south and worked their way up to the gates of the key Palestinian security base, while another two units were deployed in the town center.
Tanks and armored cars could be seen throughout the town, according to residents.
Bulldozers destroyed crops around the town, the same sources said. More than 20 tanks were said to have been involved in the nighttime operations, while three combat helicopters hovered above.
The Israeli occupation army later confirmed the Jenin operation but refused to comment on reports from Jericho.
The army said the operations in the West Bank towns of Qalqilya, Salfit and Jenin were in retaliation for the killing of an Israeli settler woman in the West Bank.
Some 5,000 Israeli settlers live in the Jordan Valley where Jericho is located.
Jericho was the scene of frequent exchanges of fire in the early months of the Palestinian uprising which erupted last September 28th, and which has left 801 people dead, including 613 Palestinians - most of them children and teenagers - and 165 Israelis, according to Western figures.
Another Palestinian man was also shot dead by Israeli forces nearly Ramallah, a West Bank town some 15 kilometers (10 miles) north of Jerusalem, early Thursday, as he was trying to remove a roadblock, Israeli radio said.
The violence continued to obstruct efforts to secure truce talks between Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
But U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell was adamant that the world should not lose sight of the Middle East crisis despite the horrors unleashed on the United States by attacks there.
Powell said he spoke Wednesday with Arafat, twice with Peres, and with Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon, in part, to tell them how important a long-delayed, high-level meeting between the two sides would be.
"In this time of tragedy, in this time of heightened tension throughout the world and especially throughout that region, let's seize this opportunity to see if we cannot start this process of meetings," Powell told reporters in Washington, AFP reported.
|
