MIDDLE EAST: ISRAELI CABINET MEETING, REACTION TO BESLAN HOSTAGE MASSACRE IN RUSSIA. / PALESTINIAN GUNMEN SEIZE GAZA GOVERNOR'S OFFICE.

Record ID: 400175

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: ISRAELI CABINET MEETING, REACTION TO BESLAN HOSTAGE MASSACRE IN RUSSIA. / PALESTINIAN GUNMEN SEIZE GAZA GOVERNOR'S OFFICE.
  • Date: 5th September 2004
  • Summary: (W3)JERUSALEM (SEPTEMBER 5, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. TRACK: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON ENTERING OFFICE. 0.08 2. TRACK: PRIME MINISTER DEPUTY EHUD OLMERT ENTERING MEETING. 0.11 3. TRACK: DEFENCE MINISTER SHAUL MOFAZ ENTERING MEETING. 0.15 4. TRACK: FOREIGN MINISTER SILVAN SHALOM ENTERING MEETING. 0.21 5. VARIO
  • Embargoed: 20th September 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM/ KHAN YOUNIS, GAZA STRIP
  • City:
  • Country: Gaza Gaza Gaza Jerusalem Jerusalem MIDDLE EAST Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVA58YIU8A9RX0ESY9YCGQH62SE0
  • Story Text: Israeli PM Sharon says world must fight "terror"
    which has no boundaries as gunmen occupy government
    building in Gaza.



    Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon expressed
    empathy with Russia after deadly siege in Beslan school
    that claimed 333 to date including 155 children all trapped
    in the school where they had gathered for festivities to
    mark the first day of term.

    "It was proven again that terror makes no distinction
    between one kind of blood or another or between adults and
    children. Israel, which has been struggling against terror
    for dozens of years, stands with the Russian people and
    sends its condolences. There is no justification for terror
    and the time has come for the free, decent and humane world
    to unite and fight this terrible plague which knows no
    borders or limitations," Sharon told his cabinet ministers
    in a weekly meeting.

    Special forces stormed the school gymnasium on Friday
    (September 3) after Chechen separatists holding some 1,000
    people hostage started firing on children who fled in panic
    from two explosions, according to official accounts.

    It was the bloodiest end to a hostage crisis in
    decades.

    Sharon was due to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
    Lavrov on Monday (September 6) to discuss future
    cooperation with Russia in its fight against "terror".

    Masked gunmen seized the Palestinian governor's office
    in a southern Gaza Strip town on
    Sunday, demanding compensation for Israeli raids in a
    protest that added to signs of growing lawlessness.

    The territory has been gripped by unprecedented turmoil
    amid demands for anti-corruption reform from Palestinian
    President Yasser Arafat and a tussle for control ahead of
    an Israeli plan to quit the occupied Gaza Strip.

    Some dozen masked gunmen stormed the Khan Younis government
    building to demand compensation from Arafat's
    Palestinian Authority for destruction caused by Israeli
    raids. Residents stood confused in the building compound
    whilst gunmen took up positions.

    They said they were not from any of the militant groups
    waging a 4-year-old uprising.

    But rather that they came from a neighbourhood where
    Israeli troops dynamited two apartment blocks last week.

    The army raid followed twin Palestinian bus bombings, which
    killed 16 people inside Israel last week.

    "We need homes for the homeless," Abu Mujahed, a
    spokesman for the gunmen told Reuters, adding that 160
    families had been made homeless by the latest Israeli
    demolition and previous raids.

    "We are asking President Arafat to stand beside our
    fair demands," he said, adding that talks had begun with
    local officials to try to end the standoff.

    Unrest which began in the Gaza Strip late in July and
    also touched the West Bank has posed the biggest internal
    challenge to Arafat's leadership since he returned from
    exile a decade ago as Palestinians gained a measure of
    self-rule.

    Protesters are not demanding the removal of Arafat, but
    want him to enact reforms to curb corruption, bring
    democracy and remove officials accused of incompetence and
    graft.

    In a concrete step to meeting long-standing
    international and domestic demands for reforms,
    Palestinians began registering voters on Saturday for an as
    yet unscheduled general election --
    which is nearly four years overdue.

    Arafat, who has resisted reforms that could cost him
    personal influence, said the election date would be
    announced after a municipal ballot in November.

    The battle between Israel and Palestinian militants in
    the Gaza Strip has also heated up ahead of a planned
    Israeli withdrawal from the territory the Jewish state
    captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

    Militants want to claim any pullout as a victory, while
    the Israeli army is determined to smash them first.



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