A Palestinian mother and her four children were killed in the Gaza Strip on Friday when a land mine exploded under a donkey cart in which they were riding, a senior Palestinian security official said. The official blamed Israel for the blast, on a road near the al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
The incident occurred near a Palestinian police post which Israeli troops had occupied for several days this week before pulling out. The Israeli army denied any link to Friday's incident.
"It is an ugly crime added to the series of Israeli murders of Palestinians civilians," public security chief Abdel-Razek al-Majaydeh told Reuters.
Zaina al-Awawda, 44, her two daughters and two sons died in the explosion, hospital officials said. At least two other people were seriously wounded, they said.
"We have checked this claim and I can tell you categorically that the Israeli army has absolutely nothing to do with this incident," an Israeli army spokesman said. He said Israeli military and civilian vehicles had been regularly targeted by roadside bombs planted by Palestinian activists since the Intifada began in September 2000 and many roads were peppered with them. "Every day we either find a roadside bomb or one blows up," the spokesman said.
In separate incidents in Gaza on Friday, two Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops, Israel Radio reported.
Soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian they saw trying to cross a security fence and place an explosive device in the area of the Sufa checkpoint in the northern Gaza Strip.
In the morning, israeli troops killed one Palestinian and arrested another who had infiltrated the area of the Elei Sinai settlement, Israel Radio reported. Soldiers had been searching for the two since the previous night.
The two had in their possession fence cutters, fragmentary grenades and bullets, and appear to have been on their way to carry out an attack on the settlement.
Zinni
Meanwhile, U.S. Middle East Envoy Anthony Zinni met Friday afternoon with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as part of the efforts to arrange a new cease-fire between Israelis and Palestinians.
The meeting in Ramallah came just hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered Israeli forces to redeploy from Palestinian cities it had occupied in recent days. However, Arafat accused the Israelis of putting on a show for the U.S. envoy.
"They are trying to give only a picture for Zinni that they have left Ramallah," Arafat said before meeting with Zinni Friday. "What's the meaning of leaving Ramallah and they are still in all the other cities and towns and camps everywhere in Palestine? We can't accept this and the crimes which have been done against our holy sacred places in Bethlehem."
Aides to Arafat told CNN he would present a number of ideas with Zinni on how to end the violence.
Before the meeting, top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP Arafat prepared to present his own ceasefire initiative to the US peace envoy.
The plan touches on previous US blueprints for ending the violence as well as "means of putting an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian villages and towns,". Erakat disclosed.
The proposal deals with putting a "definitive end to the blockade imposed on the Palestinians, as well as the aggression and the military escalation against them," he added.
Zinni went to Ramallah after meeting with Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres earlier in the day. Prior to his meeting with Peres, Zinni described himself as "encouraged." "I am encouraged. Despite the conditions, I think there are the ingredients here for hope," Zinni told reporters prior to the meeting. "My expectation is success."
In a Friday morning interview on Israel Radio, Peres called Zinni's chances for brokering a cease-fire "not small," adding that "both sides want it and need it." "What is happening now is not leading to anywhere," the foreign minister said. "Just look at the number of losses on our side as well as on the Palestinian side." (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
