Wives and daughters of Palestinian fighters are now the target of Israeli troops

GAZA CITY, February 8 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Thrilled to see her house bulldozed flattened by Israeli occupation troops, a Palestinian woman, 65, died of a heart attack Saturday, February 8, in another Israeli unbridled aggression on the Palestinian people.

During an Israeli armored incursion into the Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis,
Suad Mahmud Hamad, who had a history of heart trouble, died as she evacuated her home with her son as Israeli army bulldozers were about to destroy it along with eight neighboring houses, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported quoting Palestinian sources.

An Imam of a nearby mosque was also injured by Israeli fire during the demolition operation.

A Palestinian man, in addition, died in hospital Friday, February 7, a month after being shot by Israeli forces in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian hospital sources said.

Thirty-five year old Majed Salibi was fatally wounded in the Khan Yunes refugee camp when Israeli forces stormed the camp on January 7 and opened random fire at innocent Palestinians. 

Salibi was employed by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

His death brought the toll from the Palestinian Intifada against the Israeli occupation to 2,931 people.

New Evil Policy

Convinced that the policy of demolition has come to no avail, Israeli occupation forces have adopted a new aggressive policy towards the Palestinians.

They have gone on a wave of abducting wives and relatives of Palestinians martyrs in a desperate attempt to put an end to resistance operations.

The Israeli forces recently rounded up a number of the martyrs' wives and daughters in the Palestinian universities to break the staunch will of the detained Palestinian fighters.

"The Israeli arrests (of Palestinian women) are brutal and aim at raping and sexually harassing them…And this is a dangerous and unprecedented practice, at which we cannot turn a blind eye," Al-Quds Press news agency quoted Palestinian sources as saying.

To mention but a few examples of the Israeli brazen aggression, the sources said Israeli soldiers detained a Palestinian woman, identified as Fatma Abu Fara, in a two-meter length solitary confinement and slammed the door shut after an Israeli soldier had entered the cell.

The woman, the sources added, went into hysterics, provoking an outcry of other Palestinian detainees and forcing the barbaric Israelis to open the cell and drive the soldier out.

In another inhumane incident, the wife of the Palestinian fighter Falah Nada was forcibly taken away from her children and tortured to twist the arm of her husband to confess to fabricated charges.

Asma' Hamed, the wife of the resistance fighter Ibrahim Hamed, was also taken away from her children and tortured to give information about the whereabouts of her husband.

The Israeli occupation troops, in addition, threatened to deport her to Jordan for not having an Israeli identity card.

Add to the list, Ibtahal Youssef and Amani Said, university students, who had been also subjected to a humiliating and dignity-stripping torture.

In the West Bank city of TulKarm, Israeli occupation troops rounded up a brother to a Palestinian fighter, who carried out a resistance operation against Israeli targets, leaving four Israeli settlers killed.

On Wednesday, February 5, Israeli forces abducted two brothers of martyr Ala' Hilal al-Sabbah, who carried out an operation claimed by Saraia Al-Quds (Al-Quds Brigades), the military wing of the Islamic Jihad.

"Scores of Israeli soldiers stormed his house and pulled his family in a small room for a couple of hours, during which the soldiers searched the house, tampered with Ala's properties and turned the house upside-down," said his father.

He added that the Israeli soldiers also took Ala's brothers, Tha'er, 22, and Kefah, 19, to the roof to question them and then led them to an unknown place.

The father called on the human rights organizations to pressure Israel authorities into releasing his sons, noting that Kefah was about to go to Hajj with his mother on Thursday, February 6. 

Sharon Met Senior Palestinians in Secret

Meanwhile, Israeli media disclosed that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon held secret talks with two senior Palestinian officials before and after last month's general elections.

Channel One of the Israeli public TV said Sharon held his first meeting with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's PLO deputy, Mahmud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen, before his Likud party won the general elections last month.

A second meeting was held on Wednesday, February 5, at Sharon's ranch in the southern Negev desert with the speaker of the Palestinian parliament, Ahmed Qorei, also known as Abu Ala.

The channel also said that Israeli Chief of Staff Dov Weisglass and U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Daniel Kurtzer, also attended the talks.

According to the channel, Weisglass held talks with Palestinian Interior Minister Hani al-Hassan Wednesday.

It cited sources close to the government as saying more such meetings were expected in the near future.

The talks, which apparently came about under pressure from the U.S. administration, centered on the possibility of a ceasefire and efforts to strengthen the Palestinian Authority.

According to Israeli reports, Sharon's secret talks were aimed at improving the climate in the Arab world for U.S. efforts to gain support for a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

On January 30, 2002, Sharon met with Arafat's economic adviser, Mohammad Rashid.

Sharon has said several times he was holding secret talks with the Palestinians, despite the fact his government and the United States have actively tried to have Arafat sidelined.