Israel has intensified its security measures around Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem Friday, in anticipation of a day of rage against its assassination policy targeting key activists. Meanwhile, the Jewish state has shown ignorance of mounting criticism of such policy.
Israeli security forces killed a Palestinian who was allegedly planting a roadside bomb north of Nablus. He was identified as Firas Abdul Haq, 23.
On Thursday, seven Palestinians were wounded by Israeli troops in three separate incidents in the Gaza Strip, including two boys who were badly injured, Palestinian hospital sources told AFP.
A 12-year-old boy and two other Palestinians were hit by gunfire during clashes between Israeli soldiers and stone-throwing protestors to the east of Gaza City, near the Karni crossing point between Palestinian territory and Israel, they said.
A 16-year-old was seriously wounded in the head in the southern Rafah sector of the Gaza Strip, other hospital sources said.
Meanwhile, two civilians and a member of the Palestinian security services were wounded late Thursday after Israeli tanks moved into the autonomous Palestinian sector of Deir el-Balah, in the center of the Gaza Strip, and shelled two buildings.
The three tanks crossed some 800 metros (yards) into an area officially under full Palestinian control after two mortar shells were fired from the same area towards the Israeli settlement of Kfar Darom, an Israeli military spokesman said.
The Israeli army has been operating a quick strike-back policy to any Palestinian attacks.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Thursday defended his government's policy of targetting Palestinian activists accused of "terrorism".
"I am not saying that this policy pleases everyone," Sharon told Israel's military radio. "I am no more enthusiastic about this policy... But it is what today will best respond to our security needs."
Sahron had said that Israel will continue its policy of “targeting Palestinian terrorists,” despite the strong American criticism of Tuesday's helicopter attack on a Hamas office in Nablus, which killed eight, including two children.
According to The Jerusalem Post, Sharon has spoken to US Secretary of State Colin Powell and other world leaders to explain Israel's position “that it is necessary to target terrorists before they commit attacks in order to save lives and prevent a massive terrorist outrage that would escalate the conflict.”
"Israel reserves the right to defend its citizens, just like the US, " Sharon told Powell Wednesday, explaining that Israel's policy would be unnecessary if Palestinian President Yasser Arafat would arrest wanted “terrorists.”
Powell said yesterday that Israel's attack in Nablus was "too aggressive" and helped to escalate Middle East violence.
However, Israel's controversial policy of assassinating Intifada leaders got a cautious nod of approval from the White House late Thursday, as Vice President Richard Cheney said he saw "some justification" to these strikes.
But the remarks have also revealed a certain dissonance between the White House and the State Department on the issue.
"We're against this practice of targeted killings and we're against this particular attack," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said earlier Thursday.
Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have reached a new high following an Israeli helicopter strike in the West Bank town of Nablus on Tuesday that killed six Hamas militants and two young boys, who happened to be close by.
But as Palestinian leaders sought to bring the international community to condemn the attack, Cheney offered an assessment of the event that was closer to that of Israeli officials, said AFP.
"If you've got an organization that has plotted or is plotting some kind of suicide bomber attack, for example, and they have hard evidence of who it is and where they're located, I think there's some justification in their trying to protect themselves by preempting," Cheney told Fox News television.
Cheney said he was aware that Israel had repeatedly asked the Palestinian Authority to take action against suspected terrorists.
He said the Israelis had gone forward and launched strikes to preempt terrorist activities in the past when the Palestinians had failed to respond to these requests.
"And in some cases, I suppose, by their lights it is justified," Cheney said of the Israelis.
But the vice president said he would prefer to see Israel and the Palestinians resume security cooperation.
"Clearly, it would be better if they could work with the Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority and the terrorists of whatever stripe could be headed off and imprisoned and tried, rather than having them actually assassinated," Cheney said.
ARAFAT SAYS ISRAELI ARMY HAMPERED RETURN TO GAZA CITY
AFP quoted President Arafat as saying Thursday that the Israeli army had "blocked the road" as he traveled to his Gaza City headquarters from the southern airport after his trip to Italy.
"The Israeli army blocked us, forcing us to take a side-road to get here (Gaza City)," from the airport in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, he told journalists on his return from Rome.
He said it was proof of "Israeli escalation in all the Palestinian regions."
On his two-day visit to Italy, Arafat said he had held talks with "the Italian president (Carlo Ciampi), the prime minister (Silvio Berlusconi) and Pope John Paul II about the essential and immediate dispatch of international observers to the Palestinian territories to begin putting the Mitchell plan into effect."
In answer to a question over his ability to halt the violence in the occupied territories, he stressed his "commitment" to that effect.
GUARDIAN: SECRET PLAN TO SEND OBSERVERS TO ISRAEL
In a report Friday, The Guardian Unlimited said that the US is secretly drawing up detailed plans for the deployment of an observer force to monitor flashpoints in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, resurrecting an idea that seemed to have been killed off by Israeli objections two weeks ago.
Quting western diplomatic sources, the paper said that the US is pressing ahead with the observer force and has drawn up a series of options covering numbers, terms of reference and where it should be located in the West Bank and Gaza.
Britain and other European countries have been involved in the planning, according to the report.
It is the first positive sign of diplomatic activity for weeks in a Middle East confrontation that reached new levels of violence with the Nablus massacre.
Arafat warned in Rome that the region had reached the point of catastrophe and reiterated call for such a force, but Israel has been resolutely opposed.
Sharon, and his foreign minister, Shimon Peres, will continue to say publicly for the time being that it sees no future for such a force. But Israel is in no position to ignore the US, its main ally and protector, said the Guardian.
Two Israeli government sources, who would normally only list objections to the idea of such a force, confirmed separately Thursday that it was coming closer to acceptance. "It may be that Israel has to agree to something," one told the daily.
A western diplomatic source was quoted as saying that "there is a small sign that Israel might be more willing."
Such a monitoring force could be the first step in rebuilding the defunct peace process. Its composition is one of the issues under discussion.
Although the final details have not been decided, the balance in the US is tilting towards having an international force that will almost certainly include Britain, and away from an exclusively US force made up of the CIA, according to the report – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
