WEST BANK/GAZA: ISRAELI TROOPS IN THE WEST BANK AND GAZA HAVE IMPOSED A MASSIVE CLAMPDOWN FOLLOWING TWO SUICIDE BOMB ATTACKS IN JERUSLEM

Record ID: 400667

  • Title: WEST BANK/GAZA: ISRAELI TROOPS IN THE WEST BANK AND GAZA HAVE IMPOSED A MASSIVE CLAMPDOWN FOLLOWING TWO SUICIDE BOMB ATTACKS IN JERUSLEM
  • Date: 18th May 2003
  • Summary: (W3) RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (MAY 18, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV KALANDIYA CHECKPOINT AT ENTRANCE TO RAMALLAH 0.04 2. LV ISRAELI SOLDIERS STANDING CLOSE TO TOWER GUARD AT KALANDIYA CHECKPOINT 0.08 3. SLV ISRAELI SOLDIERS STANDING AT CHECKPOINT 0.14 4. SLV ARMED SOLDIER GUARDING CHECKPOINT 0.18 5. LV TRUCKS WAITING IN LI
  • Embargoed: 2nd June 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: RAMALLAH, WEST BANK / GAZA, GAZA STRIP
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVACDLO0RD1O39N6Y0D4QS64EIXI
  • Story Text: Israeli troops in the West Bank and Gaza have imposed a
    massive clampdown following two suicide bomb attacks in
    Jerusalem which killed seven and wounded some twenty others.

    The attack was one of two suicide bombings that rocked the
    city this morning hours after the first high-level talks in
    months were held between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
    and Abu Mazen, his Palestinian counterpart.



    Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon posptoned a trip to
    Washington on Sunday (May 18) following the two suicide bomb
    attacks. Sharon was to have met U.S. President George Bush
    for discussions on the Middle East peace process.

    Seven people were killed when a Palestinian militant
    disguised as a religious Jew stepped aboard a commuter bus in
    Jerusalem's French Hill district and blew himself up.

    In a separate attack another suicide attacker detonated
    his explosives belt at a roadblock nearby, killing himself,
    bringing the overall toll to eight dead in a fresh spasm of
    bloodshed hours after the highest-level Israeli-Palestinian
    talks for more than two years.

    The talks, which were inconclusive, had already been
    marred by a Palestinian suicide attack in the divided West
    Bank city of Hebron on Saturday night that killed two Jewish
    settlers.

    Palestinian militant groups waging a 31-month-long revolt
    against Israel have sworn to defy Palestinian Premier Mahmoud
    Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen) and scuttle the "road map"
    peace plan unfurled by Bush and partners of the U.S. in a
    mediating Quartet two weeks ago.

    With in hours of the twin attack, Israeli troops in the
    West Bank and Gaza imposed a clampdown, moving into
    Palestinian areas and calling for people to return to their
    houses under curfew.

    Security was also stepped up at roadblocks from the West
    Bank into Jerusalem.

    An 18-year-old Palestinian man was shot and killed by
    Israeli troops in the Gaza refugee camp of Khan Younis and
    three Palestinians were wounded in clashes with stone-throwers
    in the West Bank city of Nablus.

    Sunday's violence was likely to add ammunition to Sharon's
    insistence that the new reform-minded Palestinian government
    subdue militant groups first before Israel relaxes its
    military grip on territory Palestinians seek for a state.

    Sharon had planned to see Bush at the White House on
    Tuesday to raise his objections to the "road map", which
    stipulates mutual confidence-building steps to bring
    Palestinian statehood in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by 2005.

    Palestinian leaders have endorsed the road map. Sharon has
    not. His right-wing coalition opposes granting Palestinians
    full sovereignty on land Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East
    war.



  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register