An Israeli police officer was stabbed and seriously wounded Tuesday afternoon near Herod's Gate in Jerusalem's Old City. The assailant fled the scene.
Meanwhile, Hamas said that one of its members had been killed while carrying out an attack near the Karni crossing point between the northern Gaza Strip and Israel. The group named the man as Mohammad al-Jamal, 26.
It announced his death over the loudspeakers of a mosque in the al-Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip where Jamal lived. According to media reports, he was killed when an explosive charge detonated against a security fence separating Gaza from Israel, just to the south of the Karni crossing point. Israeli soldiers recovered his body.
Elsewhere, Israeli troops pressed their latest siege of Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah for the second day. Israeli state radio said the troops were looking particularly for Mahmud Naif, a member of Fatah movement.
Palestinian minister for civil affairs Jamil Tarifi told AFP his son Yusuf, the public prosecutor for the Ramallah area, had also been picked up. "This is an operation of intimidation aimed at proving that the Israeli soldiers can act where they want," said Tarifi.
Palestinian officials, meanwhile reacted furiously to what they said was An American green light given to Israel. "This is a proof that this is an administration that cannot be trusted," said Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo. "They have violated all their commitments and promises to the Arabs."
"The Arabs now should convene and hold an emergency summit to discuss this total American bias toward Israel," he said. "It is a shame that Bush says he does not trust the new Palestinian government which was even prevented from holding its first meeting because of the Israeli occupation," Abed Rabbo said.
"Bush is literally supporting the same position of Sharon and supporting the policy of occupation." (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
