VARIOUS: VIOLENCE ON ISRAEL'S NORTHERN BORDER/ISRAELI TROOPS RAID GAZA REFUGEE CAMP

Record ID: 400105

  • Title: VARIOUS: VIOLENCE ON ISRAEL'S NORTHERN BORDER/ISRAELI TROOPS RAID GAZA REFUGEE CAMP
  • Date: 6th May 2004
  • Summary: (U3) HAR DOV ON ISRAELI-LEBANESE BORDER (MAY 6, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE OF HELICOPTERS FLYING IN AREA 0.08 2. VARIOUS WIDE VIEWS OF OPERATION/ SHELLING 0.26 3. SLV MILITARY VEHICLES 0.32 4. PULLOUT FROM WATCHTOWER/ MILITARYEQUIPMENT ON MILITARY VEHICLES 0.45 (U3) RAFAH REFUGEE CAMP, GAZA (MAY 6, 2004) (REUTERS) 5.
  • Embargoed: 21st May 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: HAR DOV ON ISRAEL-LEBANESE BORDER/ RAFAH REFUGEE CAMP, GAZA/HERZLIYA, ISRAEL/BIDU, WEST BANK
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVAEJUV5TIPT81S8IJ8LC8AQ7R62
  • Story Text: Violence flares on northern frontier; raid in Gaza
    continues/Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon meets EU
    officials as Palestinians protest against barrier Israel is
    building.



    Amid an ongoing raid into Gaza refugee camps,
    tensions resurfaced on Israel's northern frontier on
    Thursday (May 6).

    Hizbollah guerrillas tried to attack a military position
    on the border with Lebanon, but were thwarted by
    alert troops manning the post who opened fire at them,
    Israel Radio reported.

    Military sources confirmed that troops opened fire at
    "suspicious figures carry equipment" who approached a
    border position early in the day.

    The military did not provide further details, saying an
    investigation into the incident was underway in the field.

    It was not immediately clear whether any of the suspected
    militants were hit, they said.

    On Wednesday (May 5), Israeli warplanes bombed what the
    army called Hizbollah artillery positions in southern
    Lebanon after the Iranian-backed Lebanese guerrilla group
    fired anti-aircraft shells at northern Israel.

    The shells landed on a collective farm and a beach near
    the border, causing a fire but hurting nobody, the army
    said.

    The flare-up on the Israel-Lebanon border came against
    the backdrop of reports that a new round of German-mediated
    prisoner swap negotiations between Israel and Hizbollah
    were close to a breakthrough.

    In Gaza, Israeli troops continued to raid refugee
    camps. Israel launched raids on Sunday (May 2) after a
    shooting ambush that killed a pregnant settler and her four
    daughters and contributed to the resounding defeat of
    Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan in
    a referendum by his right-wing Likud party.

    Israeli military vehicles entered the Rafah refugee
    camp in southern Gaza and razed at least three homes,
    leaving dozens homeless and wounding at least one. Israeli
    troops killed a security man and wounded 15 people on
    Wednesday (May 5) during raids in three other refugee camps
    in the Gaza Strip.

    In Herzliya, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met
    officials from the European Union at the Irish ambassador's
    residence in northern Israel on Thursday (May 6).

    Ireland currently holds the rotating presidency of the
    European Union and will continue to do so until the end of
    June 2004.

    "I believe that the European Union has a very important
    role in the events here Middle East and I hope that
    together we can do many things to move forward with peace
    in our region," Sharon said.

    Meanwhile Israeli Vice Premier Ehud Olmert said
    Sharon's proposed Gaza pullout plan would be pushed through
    virtually unchanged.

    Sharon's original pullout plan envisaged scrapping all
    21 Gaza settlements, with 7,500 Jews amidst 1.2 million
    Palestinians, and four of 120 in the West Bank.

    He has made clear he wants to retain large West Bank
    settlement blocs, angering Palestinians who fear the Gaza
    blueprint is a ruse to annex land captured in the 1967 war.

    Olmert predicted in a newspaper interview that Sharon
    would win cabinet approval within weeks despite his party's
    rejection of the plan.

    Sharon's deputy made his comments as Israel began work
    on a new fence deep in the territory to secure a settler
    road.

    Clashes erupted between Palestinian protesters and
    Israeli military after the protesters gathered on a road
    banned to Palestinian traffic since their uprising began in
    September 2000.

    Arriving with large banners that read "The Wall Must
    Fall" and "Freedom for Palestine" the protesters stood
    defiantly in front of the soldiers on the road.

    Palestinians threw stones at the troops who responded
    by firing tear gas and ammunition at the demonstrators.

    There was no immediate report of injuries.

    Israel says the barrier is a bulwark against suicide
    bombers but Palestinians say it will encourage suicide
    attacks by breeding added resentment. Palestinians also
    call it a land grab, as it carves into areas which
    Palestinians want as their future state.


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