JERUSALEM/ISRAEL/GAZA: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON GIVES HIS ARMY A FREE HAND AS TROOPS MASS NEAR GAZA

Record ID: 400212

  • Title: JERUSALEM/ISRAEL/GAZA: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON GIVES HIS ARMY A FREE HAND AS TROOPS MASS NEAR GAZA
  • Date: 17th July 2005
  • Summary: (W2) JERUSALEM (JULY 17, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. SV ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON ENTERING CABINET MEETING 0.10 2. SV ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON OPENING MEETING 0.15 3. MCU OF ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF DAN HALUTZ 0.17 4. MCU (Hebrew) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON SAYING: "We do not under any circumstance intend to allow th
  • Embargoed: 1st August 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM/ MEFALSIM, ISRAEL/BEIT LAHIYA AND KHAN YOUNIS ANDNEVE DEKALIM, GUSH KATIF SETTLEMENT BLOC AND GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVA3UZGUQ7JAUGJHSP94PI2ZFWEY
  • Story Text: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon gives his army a
    free hand as troops mass near Gaza.




    Israel, threatening a major ground offensive into
    Gaza, gave a free hand to security forces to stop
    Palestinian cross-border rocket salvoes on Sunday (July
    17).

    Troops and tanks massed in preparation for an attack,
    but Israeli political sources said they were unlikely to
    move before U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visits
    to try to salvage a crumbling 5-month-old ceasefire.

    The worst surge in bloodshed since the truce was agreed
    has threatened to hamper Israel's withdrawal from Jewish
    settlements in occupied Gaza, starting next month, and
    amplified doubts over prospects for peacemaking.

    Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he had instructed the
    army "to act without limitation to stop the strikes on
    Israeli communities" after rocket and mortar salvoes
    continued despite an appeal by Palestinian President
    Mahmoud Abbas.

    "We do not under any circumstance intend to allow the
    continuation of this situation. On one hand, we are
    interested in reaching a diplomatic arrangement, but it is
    clear that this is impossible when such terrorism is
    wreaked along our borders," Sharon said at a weekly cabinet
    meeting on Sunday.

    In the southern Gaza Strip, Saeed Seyam, a commander of
    the Hamas group that is behind much of the rocket fire, was
    killed with a single bullet fired from a nearby settlement.

    His father said he had been going to water the garden. The
    army said it had killed him as part of a revived
    assassination policy.

    Troops also said they killed a gunman nearing a
    settlement in central Gaza. There was no Palestinian
    confirmation.

    In northern Gaza, an Israeli aircraft fired missiles at
    a car carrying three Hamas militants leaving a site in Beit
    Lahiya used to fire rockets at Jewish settlements,
    witnesses said.

    The militants jumped out but one was wounded by
    shrapnel, witnesses and medics said. The Israeli army had
    no comment.

    Palestinian mortars injured six Israelis in southern
    Gaza settlements. Hamas said it had fired them in
    retaliation for the killing of Seyam, its ninth loss in the
    latest upsurge.

    Soon after, witnesses said two Palestinians were
    injured by tank fire.

    Troops, tanks and armoured vehicles have massed ready
    for an offensive into the Gaza Strip, and discussion of
    when it could begin dominated Sharon's cabinet meeting.

    But political sources said Israel was likely to give
    Abbas more time to bring Palestinian attacks to a halt.

    "There are signs that the situation could be defused," said
    one.

    Egyptian officials met Hamas leaders in Gaza to try to
    shore up the truce. Rice is due in the region at the end of
    the week.

    "The Egyptian delegation will be acting on the
    following points. One, that everybody should return to the
    calm, second, that the sovereignty of law should be
    enforced, third a stop should be put to any attempt to harm
    the sovereignty of the Palestinian Authority,"
    Tayeb Abdel Rahim, a Palestinian aide to President Mahmoud
    Abbas said.

    Washington wants to preserve the ceasefire and supports
    Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, seeing it as a possible
    springboard to renewed talks on its "road map" peace plan.

    Israel has not launched a large-scale offensive into
    the Gaza Strip since the death of Palestinian leader Yasser
    Arafat last year raised new hopes for Middle East
    peacemaking.

    Abbas wants to avert an Israeli incursion into Gaza but
    has to tread carefully against Hamas. Gun battles on Friday
    between Hamas, committed to destroying Israel, and
    Palestinian police trying to stop the rocket fire have
    raised fears of civil war.


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