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Posted on 01/25/2002 3:19:26 PM PST by BrooklynGOP
GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli warplanes launched a missile strike on Palestinian security targets in the West Bank and Gaza on Friday in retaliation for a Palestinian suicide bombing that wounded at least 25 people.
President Bush (news - web sites) stepped up pressure on the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) to end violence in the region, meeting foreign policy aides to discuss options on how to punish Arafat over an arms shipment. An upsurge in Israeli-Palestinian violence has battered U.S. peacemaking efforts.
At least two people were wounded when two missiles fired by Israeli F-16 fighter planes slammed into a part of Arafat's security complex in Gaza City that houses military vehicles, Palestinian medical officials said.
Arafat was in his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah where he has been confined since December because of a blockade by Israeli tanks. Israel insists he must stop suicide bombers and gunmen from attacking the Jewish state before he is allowed freedom of movement.
Witnesses reported huge plumes of smoke over the West Bank city of Tulkarm after a buildings belonging to the Palestinian security forces and the intelligence service were hit by missiles. There were no immediate reports of casualties in the Tulkarm attack.
The Israeli army said it had launched the strikes ``in reaction to the terror activities of Palestinians.''
TEL AVIV BOMBING
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Tel Aviv suicide bombing, which followed an Israeli helicopter missile strike that killed a member of the militant Islamic Hamas group in the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) on Thursday.
Israel said Arafat bore ultimate responsibility for the Tel Aviv attack. The Palestinian leadership said in a statement it condemned ``any action that harms Israeli civilians.''
It was the second time in less than a week that the center one of Israel's two main cities had been turned into a disaster zone. A Palestinian gunman killed two women on Jerusalem's main Jaffa Road on Tuesday before police shot him dead.
Tel Aviv police chief Yossi Sedbon told reporters the suicide bomber killed himself by detonating explosives in a belt he was wearing. Medical officials said at least 25 people were hurt.
Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told Israel's Channel One television initial reports suggested the militant Islamic Jihad group had dispatched two attackers to Tel Aviv.
Police had seized one of the men, who intended to carry out a shooting attack at the same time as the suicide bombing, he said.
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In other violence, Palestinian stone-throwers clashed with Israeli troops who fired tear gas and rubber-coated bullets in Ramallah when hundreds took to the streets to protest against Israeli occupation and the killing of the Hamas member.
Palestinian hospital sources said 11 people were wounded. They said a 17-year-old Palestinian, Samer Kesba, died from a bullet wound to the head sustained during stone-throwing clashes with Israeli soldiers near Ramallah four days earlier.
Israeli military sources said a tank fired a shell at a ''terrorist squad'' near a Jewish settlement in Gaza. Palestinian officials said the army told them it would turn over two bodies.
Bush made clear his concern about the upsurge in violence.
``I am disappointed in Yasser Arafat. He must make a full effort to rout out terror in the Middle East,'' Bush told reporters during a visit to Portland, Maine.
U.S. officials did not give any details about Bush's discussions with his foreign policy aides or likely action against Arafat, but Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said: ``All kinds of options are out there.''
The arms shipment was intercepted by Israel in the Red Sea on January 3.
Israel says the ship was carrying 50 tons of munitions manufactured in Iran and was bound for the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) denies knowledge of the ship.
Reported possible U.S. measures could include cutting ties with Arafat, closing Palestinian Authority offices in Washington and suspending peace efforts by U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni, who left the region almost three weeks ago after failing to forge a truce.
``We continue to review our policy with respect to the Palestinian Authority and Chairman Arafat,'' Powell said.
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said in an interview with Reuters on Friday that Sharon mistakenly believed he could rely on force to end the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation that began in September 2000. At least 820 Palestinians and 248 Israelis have died in the violence.
In Morocco, the Islamic Conference Organization's Jerusalem Committee, Islam's main world body, urged the international community to help end Israel's ``arbitrary and violent acts'' against Palestinians, including the blockade on Arafat.
Good.
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