A lone Palestinian sniper gunned down 10 Israelis, including seven soldiers at a checkpoint near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Another soldier was killed in the Gaza Strip, while four Palestinians were killed in clashes elsewhere in the West Bank.
The Palestinian sniper shot three soldiers, followed by a paramedic and four other soldiers who arrived on the scene, two settlers waiting in their car at the roadblock, and then two more soldiers before making his escape.
In a separate attack early Sunday a soldier died in hospital after coming under automatic fire near a checkpoint at Kissoufim, between the Gaza Strip and Israel. Three other soldiers were wounded.
Shortly after these attacks, Palestinian policeman Abdallah Thabet, 22, was killed when Israeli tanks shelled the village of Salfit, south of Nablus. Another policeman, Amer Zeki, 21, was killed and 18 other Palestinians wounded, one critically, when Israeli troops and tanks went into action in Ramallah, AFP reported.
On Sunday afternoon, two members of the Palestinian intelligence services were shot dead during a brief incursion by two Israeli tanks into the northern West Bank city of Qalqilya, Palestinian security and hospital sources said. Khaled Sawalha, 24, and Islam Shawahna, 26, were killed by Israeli fire in Qalqilya, close to the border with Israel, the sources said.
Earlier Hakam Abu Aisha, a 17-year-old member of the Palestinian security forces, died of wounds received Thursday during the army's incursion into the refugee camp of Jenin in the northern West Bank, hospital sources said.
Barghuti
Meanwhile, Marwan Barghuti, the chief of Fatah-Tanzim in the West Bank hailed Sunday attacks by a Fatah offshoot after 21 Israelis were killed in less than 24 hours.
"I congratulate the Palestinian people and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades for their operations against (Israeli) soldiers and settlers," Barghuti told the Qatar-based Arab satellite television station al-Jazeera.
He also called on the Israeli people to bring down the "terrorist" government of Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades took responsibility for Saturday night's suicide explosion in an ultra-Orthodox district of Jerusalem, which killed nine Israelis.
Barghuti added, "These operations are aimed at avenging our martyrs killed by Sharon" in the Balata and Jenin camps, adding that the Israeli leader "is deluding himself in believing that he can crush the Intifada." The 18-month Palestinian uprising, Intifada will go on, he said.
Israeli Cabinet
During the weekly israeli cabinet meeting Sunday morning, prime minister Sharon stated Israel must maintain its pressure on Palestinian leader Arafat and the PA.
"We need to continue our intensive operations against Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority. If no real pressure is applied, it wil be difficult to hold any kind of negotiations," he said. He slammed the Palestinian Authority, pounding his fist on the table as he labelled it the "empire of lies."
Sharon also commented on the Saudi peace initiative, which he said is intended to replace a withdrawal from the territories as defined by UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, which was acceptible to the United States, with a withdrawal from all of the territories. The prime minister repeated his wish to receive further details on the Saudi plan.
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres spoke of the need for dialogue and progress on the understandings he reached with Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker Abu Ala. "We have to give hope to the 3.5 million Palestinians," Peres was quoted as saying by Haaretz daily.
Rafah
On Sunday, the Israeli army closed the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, stranding 1,000 Palestinians waiting to cross on either side, a Palestinian security source said.
"The Israeli army closed the Rafah border post. One thousand Palestinians are stranded on either side," the source explained, according to AFP.
Muslim pilgrims returning from the hajj, the pilgrimage to the holy sites in Saudi Arabia, were mostly among those stuck, the sources said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
