The Israeli army and police are on high alert Thursday, working on intelligence reports alleging that the Palestinian resistance will attempt to carry out attacks within the Green Line, Israel’s Army Radio reported.
Defense sources said the escalation in shooting attacks around the Occupied Territories appeared to be the first stage in a Palestinian response to Tuesday's missile strike that killed eight in Nablus, said the radio, cited by the Jerusalem Post.
The military wing of the Fateh movement, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, threatened "Zionists and their American allies" in Israel and worldwide with retaliation for the deadliest Israeli attack since the outbreak of the latest uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation.
The statement said "the fighters' weapons would be pointed towards targets inside the Zionist entity and all places where its American allies are."
The Martyrs' Brigades also vowed to inflict "a bloody international punishment on US President George Bush's Zionist clique to make it pay for its support for (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon.”
At least 100,000 Palestinians called for revenge at the funeral of six Palestinians, including five Hamas leaders who were killed Tuesday in an Israeli missile attack targeting an office in Nablus where they were having a meeting. Two 8 and 10-year old brothers were also killed while passing through the area, and their mother was seriously injured.
Hussein Al Sheikh, a Fateh official in the West Bank, said earlier that the Israelis would "pay a heavy price" for the Nablus attack.
"The Israeli government will have to be held responsible for the consequences of this crime," he said.
"The ceasefire is dead, and the Palestinian people are now uniting under fire in the fight against occupation,” he added.
Hamas' spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin promised to exact revenge from Israel, warning "our blood is not cheap."
The Israeli attack was widely criticized around the world.
France, Britain and even the US condemned the attack.
Since the September 2000 eruption of the latest Palestinian uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation, the media has reported that Palestinians have killed at least 128 Israelis with weapons ranging from stones and knives to machineguns and car bombs. Israeli military sources have reported well over 600 injuries to Israelis of Jewish descent.
In the same time period, according to international media reports, Israeli soldiers and armed Jewish settlers have killed 13 Arab Israelis and 538 Palestinians with weapons ranging from machineguns and tanks to US-made Apache helicopter gunships and F-16s.
According to an Amnesty International report issued early this year, nearly 100 of the Palestinians killed were children. In addition, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has reported over 14,000 Palestinians wounded.
Jewish author Noam Chomsky, who according to a New York Times Book Review article is “arguably the most important intellectual alive,” has been quoted as saying: “State terrorism is an extreme form of terrorism, generally much worse than individual terrorism because it has the resources of a state behind it.” – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
