GAZA: ISRAELI SOLDIERS KILL AT LEAST TWO PALESTINIAN GUNMEN INSIDE JEWISH SETTLEMENT

Record ID: 377065

  • Title: GAZA: ISRAELI SOLDIERS KILL AT LEAST TWO PALESTINIAN GUNMEN INSIDE JEWISH SETTLEMENT
  • Date: 12th April 2004
  • Summary: (EU) NETZARIM SETTLEMENT, GAZA STRIP (APRIL 12, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS OF ISRAELI SOLDIERS STANDING NEAR BODY OF GUNMAN LYING ON GROUND 0.15 2. SLV SOLDIER WALKING THROUGH FIELD 0.21 3. SLV SOLDIERS NEAR ARMY JEEP 0.23 4. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI ARMY SPOKESPERSON LIEUTENANT AYELET SAYING: "Early today in t
  • Embargoed: 27th April 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NETZARIM SETTLEMENT, GAZA
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVALOYBBKNNZVGBNMPMZ72CSRY4
  • Story Text: Israeli troops killed at least two Palestinian
    gunmen inside a Jewish settlement in Gaza.




    Israeli troops killed at least two Palestinian
    gunmen inside a Jewish settlement on Monday (April 12) as
    Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon prepared to go to
    Washington to seek U.S. approval for his plan to withdraw
    from Gaza.

    The Israeli army at first said three militants were
    shot dead in a gunbattle after being intercepted in a
    greenhouse while preparing a pre-dawn attack on settlers
    living nearby.

    "Early today in the morning, a group of three militant
    terrorists belonging to the Hamas, the (Islamic) Jihad and
    the Fatah came to the settlement of Netzarim in order to
    conduct a terror attack to kill as much as people as they
    can, in the settlement itself, in the holiday. The
    soldiers who were in the area noticed a group of
    terrorists, opened fire and killed two of them and injured
    the third," Lieutenant Ayelet said.

    No soldiers or settlers were injured in the incident,
    on the last day of the week-long Jewish Passover holiday.

    A joint statement by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah
    militant groups, claiming responsibility for the attempt to
    assault Netzarim, said two of three gunmen involved were
    killed and gave their names. The other militant escaped, it
    said.

    Sharon plans to evacuate Netzarim and 19 other
    settlements in Gaza, which Israel occupied in the 1967
    Middle East war, under a unilateral plan to "disengage"
    from conflict with the Palestinians.

    The 7,500 Jewish settlers living in comfortable
    suburban enclaves in Gaza among 1.3 million impoverished
    Palestinians have been frequent targets of a Palestinian
    uprising since 2000.

    After gunmen killed three young soldiers sleeping in
    their Netzarim barracks in October, officers in a reserve
    unit sent to take over duty made waves in Israel by saying
    soldiers should not be made to risk their lives defending
    indefensible enclaves.

    Netzarim has just 400 residents but is guarded by
    roughly the same number of soldiers. At least 20 soldiers
    have been killed there by Palestinian militants since 2000.

    Sharon flies to Washington later on Monday for a
    meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush at which Israeli
    sources said they would seal a deal ensuring Israel would
    not have to cede all of the West Bank in any future peace
    deal with Palestinians.

    In return Israel would carry out an historic pullout
    from Gaza, seized along with the West Bank in the 1967
    Middle East war. Sharon faces resistance from pro-settler
    nationalists in his party and wants Bush's guarantees to
    overcome it.

    U.S. sources have said "understandings" on key aspects
    of Sharon's unilateral plan had been struck, without
    elaborating.

    Palestinians say the plan is a trick as it also entails
    Israel annexing larger West Bank settlement clusters in the
    future.
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