Posted on 07/14/2005 3:09:16 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
JERUSALEM (AP) - A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip killed a young Israeli woman Thursday, hours after Israeli forces raided the West Bank home of a British woman and killed a militant, further shaking a five-month truce threatened earlier this week by a suicide bombing.
Two rockets exploded Thursday in the village of Nativ Haasara, just north of Gaza. One hit a house and killed a woman in her 20s, the military said. The second destroyed a parked car. A Palestinian militant group, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, said the rocket attack was retaliation for the killing of the militant. In an angry reaction, David Baker, an official in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office, charged that the Palestinian Authority was responsible because of its "refusal to fight terror." He added, "We will not allow our citizens to be murdered, and if the Palestinian Authority doesn't take necessary steps to prevent terror, we will."
Rockets also hit an army base and a Gaza settlement, slightly wounding several Israelis, according to the military and media reports. In the past, Israel has retaliated for such rocket barrages by sending tanks into northern Gaza, but it has refrained from such action since a truce was declared Feb. 8.
Palestinian Interior Minister Nasser Yousef ordered his police to stop the rocket fire.
In a confrontation at nightfall, Palestinian police shot and wounded five Hamas gunmen who refused to stop at a northern Gaza roadblock, security officials said. Gunmen then attacked police stations with gunfire and grenades. No injuries were reported.
Earlier Thursday, Israeli forces shot and killed a fugitive in the West Bank city of Nablus in one of several arrest raids overnight - a sign of escalating violence that could spiral out of control and torpedo the truce. Both the Israelis and the Palestinians have an interest in maintaining the calm at least until Israel completes its pullout from Gaza and part of the West Bank in the summer.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who harshly condemned the suicide bombing on Tuesday that killed five people, also criticized the Israeli raid into Nablus and called on all sides to show restraint.
"That is what we call a cycle of dirty violence," he said. "We believe that this will lead only to the destruction of the peace process."
The militant who was killed, Mohammed Alassi, 28, was a local leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group and was planning attacks against Israel, the army said. Others in Nablus said he was not a member of Al Aqsa, not Islamic Jihad.
Islamic Jihad has attacked several Israeli targets in recent months, including the suicide bombing outside a shopping mall in the Israeli seaside city of Netanya on Tuesday evening that killed five people. The fifth victim, a soldier, died Thursday.
After the bombing, Sharon ordered his security forces to target Islamic Jihad leaders.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has told Abbas he must take immediate action to find and prosecute those responsible for the suicide bombing.
"While we welcome President Abbas' condemnation of this heinous attack, we now are looking to the Palestinian Authority to take some concrete steps to bring those who planned and support this attack to justice," State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Thursday.
Soldiers surrounded the Nablus house where Alassi was staying Thursday and demanded he surrender, said Maj. Sharon Asman. Alassi and another militant fled, and the soldiers ordered them to stop. One man returned to the house and was arrested, but Alassi continued running and was shot and killed, he said.
The raid took place at the home of Hannah Alassi, 67, a British citizen who moved to Nablus in 2002 and was not related to the fugitive.
The army said Hannah Alassi was an activist who gave refuge to militants. Hannah Alassi said she was a journalist who made television documentaries and filed stories to radio stations and magazines on the Middle East conflict.
She said Mohammed Alassi was not a member of Islamic Jihad, but rather Al Aqsa, which is linked to Abbas' Fatah movement and has been responsible for scores of attacks on Israelis but was unconnected to the suicide bombing in Netanya.
Elsewhere in the West Bank overnight, Israeli forces arrested 10 other Islamic Jihad suspects, the military said.
Visiting German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer scolded the Palestinians for failing to stop militants and warned "there will be no chance to establish an independent Palestinian state as long as violence and terrorism continue."
The upsurge in violence comes a month before Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank.
Attacks on Israel by rocket from Gaza, and they don't yet have Gaza.
Full speed ahead Ariel?
Another person sacrificed to the lie of "peace" with savages who do not desire peace.
The "Palestinians" do what barbarians do.
Israel shares the responsibility because today's Israel also refuses to seriously fight terror.
Wow, the MSM is going to have a stroke screaming in outrage over this atrocity!!!
Right?
Anyone?
{{Crickets}}
Oh that's right, she's from Israel, so her life is unimportant to the world's press. Now, if she were muslim ...
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