Posted on 03/13/2002 4:26:35 AM PST by wonders
RAMALLAH (Reuters) - An officer in Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s guard and an Italian war photographer were killed Wednesday as Israel pressed on with its biggest offensive in decades against the Palestinians on the eve of a U.S. peace mission.
Abu Fadi, deputy commander in Ramallah for Arafat's Force 17 elite guard, was killed in new fighting, Palestinian security sources said. They gave no details.
Photographer Raffaele Ciriello, who had worked in many of the world's hot spots, was shot six times in the chest while covering the Israeli takeover of the West Bank city of Ramallah, the first foreign journalist to die in 17 months of conflict.
Palestinian hospital sources said Ciriello, a freelance journalist, was killed by Israeli gunfire after tanks stormed into Ramallah Tuesday, a day in which 41 people were killed on both sides in one of the bloodiest cycles of violence so far.
But the army, which tightened its grip on Ramallah on Wednesday against the backdrop of daily Palestinian attacks in Israel, said it did not know the circumstances of Ciriello's death and had opened an investigation.
"It is important to remember that there have been exchanges of fire in Ramallah, and that this was the reason the army closed off the area to journalists yesterday," said Lieutenant-Colonel Olivier Rafowicz, an army spokesman.
Israeli military sources said a French journalist, who was not immediately identified, was hit in the leg by gunfire in Ramallah but his wound was not life-threatening. He was taken to a hospital near Jerusalem.
The latest bloodshed left little room for hope that U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni, due to arrive in Israel Thursday, would be able to convince Israelis and Palestinians to end the bloodshed after failed missions in December and January.
"Zinni will not succeed if we do not help him," Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, the government's leading dove, told Channel Two television.
His comments implied criticism of the two-week-old campaign in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (news - web sites), now involving 20,000 troops, launched by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) after Palestinian attacks brought intensified right-wing calls for tougher action.
MAIN HUB OF WEST BANK
Some 150 armored vehicles, including tanks, thrust into Ramallah and nearby refugee camps Tuesday, tearing up roads and crushing cars in the main Palestinian commercial and political hub in the West Bank, witnesses said.
Hundreds of spent bullet cartridges were scattered around Ramallah's central al-Manara Square following heavy shooting in the area overnight. Israeli tanks and armored vehicles were stationed at schools and on road junctions throughout the city.
Machinegun and rifle fire continued sporadically in many parts of Ramallah, the main commercial and political center in the West Bank, just north of Jerusalem.
Hospital sources said Israeli gunfire and tank shelling wounded at least 14 Palestinians Wednesday, including one person in critical condition with a gunshot to the head.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites), in his harshest criticism of Israel, urged it to stop "the bombing of civilian areas, the assassinations, the unnecessary use of lethal force, the demolitions and the daily humiliation of ordinary Palestinians."
The U.N. Security Council passed a U.S.-drafted resolution referring for the first time to a Palestinian state existing side by side with Israel.
The 14-0 vote late Tuesday, with Syria abstaining, marked the first time the 15-nation council had approved a resolution on the Middle East since October 2000 and was the first recent text touching on the region to be written by Washington.
U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said Washington's move aimed to give momentum to Zinni's mission, which coincides with a trip to the region by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites).
GUNFIRE, HOUSE-TO-HOUSE SEARCHES
Palestinian officials cited initial reports which said troops killed five Palestinians before dawn in the al-Manara area, but hospital sources did not confirm those deaths.
Troops searching house-to-house for weapons and militants exchanged fire with Palestinian gunmen as tanks rumbled through the deserted streets of Ramallah, a city of more than 200,000.
Tuesday, at least five Palestinians were killed in Ramallah and another was shot dead during a gun battle in the West Bank town of Hebron.
The latest operations are Israel's biggest offensive in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since it seized the two areas in the 1967 Middle East war.
Arafat's Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) governs Ramallah and other Palestinian cities under interim peace deals with Israel.
Hours after tanks occupied Ramallah, trapping Arafat in his office, two gunmen disguised as Israeli soldiers killed six Israelis near the Lebanese border before troops shot them dead.
The attack raised fears in Israel of a northern front, along with the Palestinian revolt in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Major-General Gaby Ashkenazy, chief of Israel's northern command, said it was unclear whether the gunmen had come from Lebanon or from Palestinian-ruled areas.
At least 1,057 Palestinians and 340 Israelis have been killed since the uprising began in September 200.
In the middle of a war with people shooting at you, you can't always be expected not to hit an innocent bystander. As I understand it, we killed quite of few of them ourselves in Afghanistan.
It will be interesting to hear what the wounded French journalist has to say. Of course, if we hear nothing from the French journalist, that will speak volumes as well, especially if we never learn his/her name.
They tried that already, Arafat refused because he wants it all. The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. How much do we pay these guys?
That sounds like shooting range target practice. Did the shooter have a bench mount for that grouping?
Actually, I don't think so. The Italians, like the French, are not likely to be anything but passively sophisticated. To take any other attitude might demand some kind of normal human reaction...
"It is important to remember that there have been exchanges of fire in Ramallah, and that this was the reason the army closed off the area to journalists yesterday," said Lieutenant-Colonel Olivier Rafowicz, an army spokesman.
You enter an operational war zone against the army's warning at your own risk. When an army is really serious about winning, they don't stop the battle for some guy to take pictures safely.
You enter an operational war zone against the army's warning at your own risk. When an army is really serious about winning, they don't stop the battle for some guy to take pictures safely.
Agreed. No argument at all from me there.
While this is true, a review of the tone and content of the criticism can be very revealing.
Of course accidents happen, but it is stupid to kill journalists, however emotionally satisfying it might be (and it often would be for me) to do so.
This assumes that the intent was to kill the journalist. As I pointed out in my original response, he may have been killed accidently. With all the shooting going on, it is difficult to tell friend from foe. But you automatically assume the intent was to kill the journalist AND you automatically assume it was the Israelis that did so. Possibly you forget that little boy who was killed last year? You know the one whose father hid behind him? The one plastered repeatedly over every media outlet in the world? It turned out that the Israelis could not possibly have killed him, but that didn't stop the accusations. This may be the same thing but you assume that you know it all by the sarcastic tone of your post.
So, c'mon, Cato....who do you think you're fooling with this protestation of unbiased innocence?
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