Israel launched swift and deadly retaliatory strikes on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's personal security force on Wednesday night in retaliation for a renewed wave of bloody anti-Israeli attacks.
At least one member of Force 17 and a Palestinian woman were killed when Israeli attack helicopters unleashed their weapons on the main West Bank city of Ramallah, while dozens more were wounded in strikes on at least six sites in the Gaza Strip.
The attacks -- which lasted just 20 minutes -- were the first against Palestinian targets by the three-week old government of hardline Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and drew a furious reaction from the Palestinians who accused Israel of escalating the situation.
Sharon's government had vowed to strike back after Israel was rocked by three bomb attacks in less than 24 hours that killed two Israelis and the killing of a baby girl in an apparent Palestinian sniper attack in the West Bank.
"The purpose here was to hit the terrorists and only those who sent them and those who direct them and to avoid as much as possible hitting the civilian population and I think that mission was accomplished," said Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Sharon.
"We hope what we have done will serve as a warning," he added in an interview with CNN television.
"We still hope the Palestinian Authority will come to its senses and we will be willing to negotiate peacefully because that is the only way that we can come to a real resolution of this conflict."
But Palestinian presidential secretary Tayeb Abdel Rahim said the action, which came hours after the end of the Arab summit in Amman that declared support for the six-month-old Palestinian uprising, was an" escalation of Israeli aggression."
Abdel Rahim said a veto by the United States of a UN Security Council resolution calling for international observers to be sent to the Palestinian territories had given the green light to the Israeli attacks.
Sharon's office said in a statement that the helicopter raids, the first by Israel since November, had singled out specific targets of Force 17 leaders it charged were linked to terrorism.
"Officials of the Palestinian Authority are deeply involved in terrorism, violence and incitement to violence," it said, laying the wave of recent bombings, including a suicide attack which killed two Israeli teenagers Wednesday morning, firmly at the door of the self-rule authority.
The government said its future policy would be aimed at "terrorist leaders, not the civilian population."
The Israeli army said it hit the Force 17 headquarters in Ramallah as well as several targets in the Gaza Strip, including a weapons depot, a training camp and an armored vehicle.
Residents saw the sky set ablaze as power was cut off throughout Gaza City, Arafat's main base.
The apparent suicide bomb, claimed by the armed wing of the radical Hamas movement killed two Israeli boys on their way to a religious school, the day after two bombings in Jerusalem killed another suicide bomber and injured some 30 Israelis.
Enraged Israelis have also been demanding tough action after the killing of a 10-month-old Jewish baby girl in the West Bank City of Hebron, a frequent source of conflict between the Palestinian population and 400 radical Jewish settlers.
The US administration of President George W. Bush issued a harsh statement about the bombings but did not immediately mention the Israeli raids.
"The United States strongly condemns the violence that has taken place. There is no excuse, no justification, for the bombings that recently took place in Israel," Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.
Fleischer also said Bush again urged the parties to end the latest cycle of violence to allow for direct dialogue GAZA CITY (AFP) --
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
