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.
I think its time for Israel to fight and with the Lords help win.
They made their bed and now it's time to force them to sleep in it. Because, who could live like this?
Seriously, they are so thick headed and violent they start trouble, get both the Jews and the Hindus angry and then whine about being "oppressed" and how wrong it all is.
They start trouble, lose wars, lose land and then whine and blow themselves up. It's become a protocol to these people.
A succinct history of the last fifty years.
A series of craven, murderous attacks targeting women and children, followed by sound military defeat, and incessant whining--all the while secretly preparing more craven, murderous attacks targeting women and children.
Were this sniper attack in America, the ATF would've gone house to house and confiscated every weapon and shot every a&&h*le who got in the way.
Send the ATF--for once they would be on the right side.
And I keep reading and hearing from friends that the CIA trained them.
Surely--just as Krauthammer and Netanyahu have repeatedly pointed out--Arafat's gang have exceeded the stipulated police strength, and possess unauthorized weapons.
It is likely true that our FBI or CIA has trained this gang, and armed them.
Release the forensics--let's see what gun was used.
Exactly right.
Honestly? I wouldn't trust those dumbells to fall out of a tree.
They would wind up shooting Sharon, his neighbors and themselves before they brought in a tank and set the place on fire to destroy evidence.
THEN they would issue a statement calling him an "extreemist right wing militia member, plotting to take over the world" with a "cache of weapons, including a .22 marlin semi auto with hundreds of rounds of ammunition"
Why would the ragheads be escalating now, given that the US has its troops in the field and looking for trouble?
Together with the increased atrocities against civilians, it is an increase in the intensity of the provocation. They are trying to draw us in, or draw the Israeli army into action. Why?
One can only speculate, but it feels to me like an overall plan is being enacted, with the goal perhaps of dealing a decisive blow. That can only mean use of some kind of WMD, here or in Israel.
Perhaps this what GW meant when he said "Time is not on our side." Perhaps this is why Sharon is biting the bullet day after day. They must know something is afoot.
The end result will be holocaust for the barbarians, but they already have shown scorn for life itself, and at what cost to civilization?
Didn't Ehud "advised by Carville" Barak offer the Palestenian the Golan Heights as part of the Clinton "Save My Legacy" Futility Tour?
I mean, it's no fun blowing yourself up outside the fence..
I believe so, yes.. And, of course Yassir turned him down flat.
Bibi bitched the whole time (if I remember right.. been a while) about giving up land for peace..
Imo, Bibi was right.
Low Oil
You have inadvertently touched on the primary reason that I donot belong to any organized religion. It seems that in war, both parties pray to God for help. Frankly, If I were God, I would not help either side to win. I would try to prevent the confrontation, but once started, I would be a spectator.
Just a thought. Not a condomnation of religion. I believe war is or should be a non-religious enterprise. Especially when both sides are praying for victory.
Yeah, well I just got off the phone with them and it seems they hit a snag with the whole "peacekeeper deployment" thing when the airport wouldn't accept Euros as payment for their fuel.
They asked me to Western Union them some greenbacks so they can get on with saving the planet.
We got it all worked out.. everything is under control.
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.
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