Posted on 03/03/2002 3:24:51 PM PST by Jhoffa_
Sniper Kills 10 More Israelis
JERUSALEM- Taking aim from a hilltop, a sniper killed 10 soldiers and civilians at a checkpoint Sunday in the deadliest of a two-day string of Palestinian attacks that killed 21 Israelis.
Israel sent tanks and helicopters on retaliatory raids that hit several Palestinian Authority security targets, killing four Palestinian policemen, while Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Cabinet weighed additional military action.
Following the weekend bloodletting, Sharon huddled with senior government ministers and security officials and his office issued a statement just before midnight saying that the inner security Cabinet had approved military plans for ongoing attacks on Palestinian targets.
"Ministers approved an operational program presented by the army to apply constant military pressure on the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian terror organizations," the statement said. "Its object is to halt Palestinian terror." It gave no further details.
Recent days have seen some of the worst carnage in months, and bitter comments by both sides pointed to further confrontations.
"There is no alternative but to put an end to (Palestinian leader Yasser) Arafat's rule," Israeli Cabinet Minister Dan Naveh said in remarks that are expressed with increasing frequency in Israel.
Speaking during an official visit to Mexico, Israeli President Moshe Katsav also denounced Arafat and called on Palestinians to question his leadership.
"The Palestinian people should ask which achievement their president brought to them in the last 18 months," Katsav said in Mexico City. "He must, he should do something to stop the violence."
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militia linked to Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for three of the four lethal attacks carried out in a 12-hour period from Saturday night to Sunday morning, including the checkpoint shooting.
Militants had vowed to strike after Israeli forces pushed into two Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank last Thursday in search of militants believed responsible for earlier violence. During the incursions, 23 Palestinians were killed in three days, including gunmen, policemen and civilians.
"The Palestinian leadership considers the recent Israeli escalation ... to be aimed at destroying peace and security in the whole region," the Palestinian Authority said in a statement.
The Sunday morning shooting occurred at the military roadblock near the Palestinian village of Silwad. The army described it as an ambush carried out by a single sniper.
The gunman had a clear view from a hill overlooking the checkpoint. After the first Israeli was struck by gunfire, soldiers began climbing the steep hill toward the gunman and more were hit, witnesses said.
An army helicopter soon reached the area, but the assailant had escaped, said Hezi Tsur, a paramedic at the scene.
The dead included seven soldiers and three civilians. Six people were injured, the army and rescue services said.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades circulated a leaflet saying the shooting was in response to Israeli army actions in the two refugee camps.
In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a group of soldiers early Sunday along a road that runs on the Israeli side of the fence between the Gaza Strip and southern Israel.
One soldier was killed and four soldiers were wounded, the army said. The military wing of the radical group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for that attack in a telephone call to The Associated Press.
The pair of Sunday morning attacks followed a suicide bombing by a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades Saturday night in a crowded ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem. The bombing killed nine Israelis and wounded dozens.
The dead included two babies, one seven months and the other 18 months, and children ages 3, 7, 12 and 15.
"I searched the streets like a mad person, street by street - it was crowded with people and I just screamed and screamed," said Aviva Nachmani, who eventually found her three children unharmed.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades also said it shot dead an Israeli police detective riding a motorcycle Saturday night along a desert trail in the West Bank, near Jerusalem.
Israel says Arafat bears responsibility for the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and could halt their attacks if he was serious about ending the Palestinian violence.
Palestinian leaders denounced the suicide bombing and again said they oppose violence against civilians. But they say they cannot tell Palestinians to put down their weapons at a time when the Israeli military is regularly operating in Palestinian areas.
In retaliatory action Sunday, Israeli tanks shelled a Palestinian intelligence office south of Nablus, and the Palestinians said a policemen was killed.
Palestinians also reported a policeman killed when Israeli forces shelled a police installation outside Ramallah in the West Bank.
Two more policemen died when Israeli troops fired on a police post in the West Bank town of Qalqiliya, the Palestinians said.
Meanwhile, the Israeli forces on Sunday pulled out of the Balata refugee camp on the edge of Nablus, where troops had searched for militants and weapons since Thursday.
In the Jenin refugee camp, about 20 miles away, the Israeli forces pulled out Saturday, but sent at least eight tanks back into the camp on Sunday afternoon, camp residents said.
The CIA trained the Palestinian Intelegence Services in the art of sniping as part of Clintoons Peace deal. I never understood how sniping could viewed as peace making. Obviously Clintoon has a different meaning for the word "peace" and trained the Arabs in it.
Or possibly "Land for Peace"
ala, Adolph Hitler?
Didn't Czechoslovakia give up militarily advantagous land to Hitler in an effort to avoid war? And they justified it because England and France promised to help them should Hitler invade?
Important land, like the Golan Heights?
Ive noticed that all the jerks on this forum usually are Islam and Palestinian apologists.
Why do you think the EU is sinking 50 million a month into the Fight? For Jollies? Arafat could not continue this intifadda without the EU's help.
This is a marked change in tactics. The method to date has been a bomb or blazing away with an AK-47 on a street corner until gunned down. Could be bad news for checkpoints. It might be best to fold up shop and go home.
The AK is a good short range weapon...Be it city, or dense a veggie ambush... give a fighter a good .308-.338...and well, your right.
Indeed! Of course you know that home is on both sides of the checkpoint... END THE ARAB OCCUPATION NOW! -GRIN-
I knew I didn't dream that a U.S. agency had trained Palestinian snipers. CIA?
Clearly, Sharon is holding back. Clearly, he will not hold back forever. Clearly, when he strikes that will be the end of Arafat and every member of the Palestinian police and every member of the Palestinian terrorist groups. Although the Palestinians have improved their fighting ability recently, there are utterly overmatched by Israel when Israel takes the gloves off. The Palestinians (and Muslim militants in general) are DELUSIONAL, which ultimately leads to defeat in any war.
There are several possible reasons that Sharon may be holding back, but given Bush's commitment to the war on terror and the insane determination of the Palestinians to cast their lot with Al-Qaeda, and given the lack of recent public friction between Sharon and Bush or between Sharon and his domestic opposition, it is clear that Bush WILL give Sharon the go-ahead at some point and it will all be over in a few days.
What is causing the delay is probably the preparation of a plan to deal with the other Arab countries. They need to be persuaded that it would be suicidal to attack Israel; the rulers of Syria, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia can probably be persuaded to sit on their hands while Israel annihilates the Palestinian fighting capability.
That leaves three wild cards: Iran, Iraq, and WMDs. Iran and Iraq will be handled by making it clear to the armies of those countries that when the shooting starts that they will have the choice between obeying their demented leaders and dying, or deposing them.
As for WMDs, if the Arabs have them they will eventually use them, we can not afford to be deterred by WMDs. We and Israel will get our civil defense at the highest level of readiness, then Sharon will unleash the army against the Palestinians, and if they launch their WMDs they will not win, and it will still be better than giving them time to prepare more and deadlier WMDs.
Truly prophetic I fear...
overlooking a military checkpoint in the West Bank shot dead seven Israeli soldiers and three Jewish settlers"
This was just one guy! The Saudi's want Israel to give up the Golan Heights. Imagine how many Jews they could kill if the palestinian terrorists controlled the heights... So much for their "peace plan".
Dr. S
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