VARIOUS: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER SENDS HIS CONDOLENCES TO SPANISH BOMB VICTIMS/ CONTINUED VIOLENCE CANCELS MEETING WITH PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER

Record ID: 400156

  • Title: VARIOUS: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER SENDS HIS CONDOLENCES TO SPANISH BOMB VICTIMS/ CONTINUED VIOLENCE CANCELS MEETING WITH PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER
  • Date: 15th March 2004
  • Summary: (W5) JERUSALEM (MARCH 15, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE OF ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON CONVENING RIGHT-WING LIKUD FACTION MEETING 0.06 2. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) SHARON SAYING: "I want to address my deep horror and send condolences to the King of Spain, to the government of Spain and the people of Spain over the great losses in the
  • Embargoed: 30th March 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM/ AHSDOD, ISRAEL/DIR KADIS, WEST BANK/GAZA
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVA96Q8GRLF4OYUUIS6JZTOOJJ1S
  • Story Text: Israelis pay respect to victims of bombings in
    Israel and Spain, recent violence stalls summit


    Speaking the day after a double suicide bombing
    killed 10 people in Israel, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
    sent his public condolences to the people, government and
    King of Spain for last week's attacks which left 200 dead.

    Speaking to a meeting of his right-wing Likud party at
    which Spanish diplomats had been invited, Sharon said:"We
    who deal with terror daily understand the pain that is
    coming over you."
    He made his remarks as Israel prepared to mourn the
    victims of Sunday's attacks in the port city of Ashdod --
    the first time that a port has been struck in more than
    three years of Palestinian uprising.

    Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom defended the government's
    decision to cancel a summit meeting between Sharon and
    Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie saying that one
    could not carry out diplomacy by day and attacks by night.

    His comments were an explicit rebuttal of the policy of
    former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin who once said that he
    would negotiate "as if there were no terror" and "fight
    terror" as if there were no negotiations. Rabin was shot by
    an Israeli extremist in 1995 days after signing the Oslo
    peace accords with the Palestinians.

    Meanwhile, several hundred people turned out to mourn
    one of the 10 people who died in Sunday's bombings.

    Mazal Marziano was buried to the ritual chants of
    rabbis and the hysterical screams of his relatives.

    At the port of Ashdod, hundreds of workers stood to
    attention and bowed their heads respect in a minute of
    silence that began with the blast of a lone siren. Nearby,
    at the scene of the bombings were several dozen candles
    place in remembrance, their weak flames fluttering in the
    wind.

    In Gaza the leaders of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad
    militant groups met following Sunday's attack -- the first
    time that suicide bombers had managed to escape from Gaza
    and carry out a bombing.

    Khaled Al-Batsh a leader of the Islamic Jihad group
    poured cold water on Israeli threats to carry more targeted
    assassinations of more senior officials. He said it would
    not dissuade his group.

    Elsewhere, the Intifada ground on with remorseless
    indifference to the pain and suffering on both sides of the
    conflict.

    In the West Bank village of Dir Kadis, Palestinians
    protesting at the construction of the barrier that Israel
    is building clashed with soldiers who fired tear gas and
    rubber coated bullets to disperse the crowd.


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