Posted on 02/21/2002 10:06:39 AM PST by FresnoDA
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Yaaawwwwnnn......
NeverGore
Top Israeli and Palestinian leaders are beginning to talk once again about establishing a cease-fire.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is scheduled to speak to the nation at 8:30 tonight. He is expected to give his outlook on the security situation and discuss how a cease-fire could be reached.
Earlier today, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat called for a cease-fire at a press conference in Ramallah.
And last night, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer met with Palestinian Preventive Security Service chief Muhammad Dahlan and Arafat's financial adviser Muhammad Rashid to discuss how to achieve a cease-fire, Israel Radio reported.
He also said Israelis will never give up or bend to the terrorists. I hope they hear that, loud and clear!!
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Today: February 21, 2002 at 7:55:20 PST GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip- Stepping up attacks Thursday, Israel fired missiles and tank shells at Palestinian Authority targets, including Yasser Arafat's West Bank headquarters, and Israeli troops entered Gaza City for the first time in 17 months of fighting. Four Palestinian civilians, three gunmen and an Israeli Arab man were killed in the strikes and a shootout between a militant and Israeli soldiers. Inspecting the damage to a VIP lounge of his compound in the town of Ramallah, a defiant Arafat said Israeli "tanks and aircraft cannot GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Stepping up attacks Thursday, Israel fired missiles and tank shells at Palestinian Authority targets, including Yasser Arafat's West Bank headquarters, and Israeli troops entered Gaza City for the first time in 17 months of fighting. Five Palestinian civilians, three gunmen and an Israeli Arab man were killed in the strikes and a shootout between a militant and Israeli soldiers. Inspecting the damage to a VIP lounge of his compound in the town of Ramallah, a defiant Arafat said Israeli "tanks and aircraft cannot frighten the Palestinian people or their leadership." Arafat, 72, was supported by two aides, but appeared fit as he walked in the darkness toward the lounge, a reception area for foreign dignitaries. Despite Arafat's tough talk, his security forces announced Thursday that they had arrested three suspects in the October assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi. Israel has kept Arafat confined to the West Bank town of Ramallah since December, saying it would not let him leave until the people behind Zeevi's assassination were arrested. But on Thursday, Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said the travel ban would only be lifted if the Palestinians put the suspects on trial. With a new wave of Israeli strikes and multiple Palestinian attacks, the past days have been among the bloodiest since Israeli-Palestinian fighting began in September 2000. The Israeli strikes came after Sharon promised his disoriented nation a "different course of action" to stop the Palestinian attacks. Sharon's declaration came in response to the killing of six Israeli soldiers by Palestinian gunmen Tuesday. Later Thursday, Sharon was to deliver a nationally broadcast address. In one of Thursday's shooting incidents, a Palestinian man was killed by Israeli fire as he tried to cross an Israeli army checkpoint in the West Bank, between Jerusalem and Ramallah. The man's brother said the victim was shot in the back of the head, without provocation. The army had no immediate comment. At another Israeli checkpoint, in the West Bank village of Baka al-Sharkiyeh, a Palestinian gunman opened fire on soldiers at an army checkpoint, the army said. Troops returned fire, killing the gunman and another man, an Israeli Arab citizen, who had driven the assailant to the checkpoint, security sources said. It was not immediately clear whether he was an accomplice or had been duped by the attacker. Two soldiers were wounded in the attack. The recent Palestinian assaults on roadblocks appeared to mark a turning point in tactics for both sides. Palestinians said the assaults reflected a new focus on targeting Israel's occupation in the West Bank and Gaza as opposed to attacks within Israel itself. Militants plan to redirect attacks against settlers and soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza and scale down operations inside Israel, said several Palestinians close to the militant groups, speaking on condition of anonymity. They said the aim is to focus attention on the lands Palestinians claim for a state and rally world support. In response, Israeli officials said they would relate to the conflict as a guerrilla war. Gissin said that would mean small, commando-style raids and more targeted killings of militants suspected of involvement in terrorism against Israelis. At about midnight Wednesday, Israeli troops moved into Gaza City. Tanks drove into the Shijaiyah neighborhood, which straddles the main north-south road through the Gaza Strip. Mosque loudspeakers called on Palestinians to confront the Israeli invaders, and police and gunmen raced to the scene of the incursions. The sound of heavy gunfire reverberated across the city. On a hilltop in Shijaiyah, Israeli troops blew up a four-story broadcasting station, knocking Palestine TV off the air for about three hours. Residents all over the city of 300,000 could see the transmission tower collapse. Israel has targeted Palestine TV and the Voice of Palestine in previous attacks. Israel accused the broadcasting outlets of inciting to violence against Israel. Another flashpoint was the Gaza refugee camp of Rafah. On Wednesday evening, Israeli warplanes flattened a five-story police compound there. Several hours later, tanks drove into Rafah and troops seized two houses, triggering a gun battle in which two Palestinian gunmen and four civilians were killed, including one who died later of his wounds. About 35 Palestinians were wounded, doctors said. The Israeli military said it was looking for tunnels used for smuggling by Palestinian militants. After daybreak Thursday, as about 4,000 Rafah residents gathered for the funeral of the five killed in nighttime fighting, Israeli helicopter gunships fired seven missiles at Palestinian security posts in the camp, about 500 yards from the crowd. Dozens of bystanders were lightly hurt by shrapnel, paramedics said. In another Gaza camp, Bureij, thousands gathered Thursday for the funeral of two members of the Islamic militant group Hamas who were killed Wednesday while attempting to fire mortar shells at Israeli targets. One of the men killed was Mohammed Issa, 32, leader of the Hamas military wing in the central Gaza Strip. Also Thursday morning, Israeli helicopter gunships fired missiles at Palestinian police positions in the West Bank towns of Jenin, Nablus and Ramallah, causing damage but no injuries. Since violence erupted in September 2000, at least 988 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 281 on the Israeli side. |
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{sigh} So true. {another sigh}.........
February 21, 2002 Posted: 2:15 PM EST (1915 GMT)
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JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Thursday that Israel would create new buffer zones along its borders. The announcement came as Israel launched attacks against Palestinian targets,
"In order to increase the security of Israeli subjects, we have decided to set up buffer zones in order to achieve security … and to set up obstacles along the border zones," Sharon said during a televised speech. "We all want peace we all are committed to peace."
When pressed by reporters, Sharon provided few details of the buffer zones.
Just prior to Sharon's address to the nation, Israeli forces launched strikes in Gaza against Palestinian targets in Rafah and Gaza City, the Israel Defense Forces said.
The IDF said a building used by military intelligence and Force 17, the elite guard corps for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, was hit in Rafah. Arafat was in Ramallah in the West Bank and was not harmed. The IDF said the Palestinian naval police headquarters was hit in Gaza City.
The latest strikes followed earlier Israeli helicopter gunship attacks at Palestinian Authority facilities in Gaza and the West Bank, while tanks and troops entered Gaza, clashing with Palestinian gunmen. Five Palestinians were killed in a firefight in the Gaza city of Rafah, the Palestinian sources said.
The offensive comes in response to what Israeli officials are now calling a "guerrilla war" against Israel by the Palestinians. A surge of Palestinian attacks that began with the suicide bombing of a West Bank pizzeria Saturday culminated Tuesday with an ambush at a military checkpoint that left six Israeli soldiers dead.
Arafat also told a news conference the Palestinian Authority "remains committed" to a unilateral cease-fire he declared December 16.
Meanwhile, three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine -- which claimed responsibility for the assassination last year of an Israeli Cabinet member -- were arrested Thursday, Palestinian security officials said.
After Sharon's expected address to the nation on Thursday, reporters will be allowed to question him. Wednesday night, in an address to the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem, Sharon said: "We are at war, and while we are taking all the necessary steps against terror, we are also doing everything not to escalate the situation."
Sources inside the Israeli government said Wednesday they believe Palestinians are waging a "full-scale guerrilla war" with Israel.
The Palestinian Authority said: "The Sharon government and its occupation forces continued their aggressive bloody campaign against the Palestinian people" with its raids Wednesday and Thursday.
In Thursday's violence, Israeli helicopter gunships struck security and police targets in Gaza and the West Bank. The IDF said its troops struck the Palestinian police headquarters in Nablus, an office of Force 17 in Ramallah, and a military, intelligence and Force 17 compound in Rafah. Force 17 is Arafat's elite security guard.
In addition, Israeli troops and tanks entered an area of Gaza City from two directions, exchanging fire with residents in the deepest incursion there by Israelis in the past 17 months of violence, Palestinian sources said. Israeli forces blew up a television transmission tower in Gaza, knocking Palestinian radio and television stations off the air.
The Rafah firefight, in which five Palestinians were killed, was described by the IDF as an attempt to halt an arms-smuggling operation.
The men arrested by Palestinian security forces are said to be suspects in the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rechavam Ze'evi last October. Arrested were Basel Asmar, Hamdi Koran and Ahed Abu Gholmi. Gholmi is the head of the PFLP military wing. The early morning raid on a house in Nablus came on direct orders from Arafat, Palestinian security officials said.
Israeli security officials said they believed the Palestinian Authority did have the suspects in custody. However, those Israeli sources said the arrests are not enough and Arafat's compound will remain ringed by Israeli tanks until the suspects and the leadership of the PFLP are put on trial.
Israel has cited the failure of Palestinian officials to make arrests in the case as the main reason they have limited Arafa's movements to the compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah, which is surrounded by Israeli tanks.
The PFLP is a Palestinian militant group that has committed numerous international terrorist attacks and has conducted attacks against Israeli or moderate Arab targets, according to the U.S. State Department. The group rejects anything less than a total Israeli withdrawal from lands occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem.
Maybe he is hoping that The USA will take over Iraq and control Iran very soon and thus weaken the Palis....??
Stealing more land to add to the settlements.
As long as there are settlements . …. No Peace for Israel!
Maybe he is hoping that The USA will take over Iraq and control Iran very soon and thus weaken the Palis....??
Everyone says Sharon doesn't have a plan. I think he does and this is what I think it is. Sharon is waiting for the U.S. to attack Iraq. When that happens, Saddam, as promised, will fire missile at Israel. The palestinians will go wild with joy and launch attacks all over the West Bank and Gaza. Sharon will say, "I have no choice," and send in the IDF, ostensibly to halt the violence, but actually to drive the palestinians out of the occupied territories while the rest of the world is preoccupied with America's war with Iraq. When the dust settles there will be no more Palestinians in the west bank or gaza. But first the U.S. has to attack Iraq which is why we heard so much after 9-11 about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and responsibility for the anthrax attack.
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