GAZA/JERUSALEM/WEST BANK: A FRAGILE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN SECURITY PLAN APPEARS SHAKY AFTER ISRAELI TANKS AND HELICOPTERS RAIDED A REFUGEE CAMP IN THE GAZA STRIP

Record ID: 400773

  • Title: GAZA/JERUSALEM/WEST BANK: A FRAGILE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN SECURITY PLAN APPEARS SHAKY AFTER ISRAELI TANKS AND HELICOPTERS RAIDED A REFUGEE CAMP IN THE GAZA STRIP
  • Date: 21st August 2002
  • Summary: (W5)SHOWS: BETHLEHEM, WEST BANK (AUGUST 21, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV PALESTINIAN POLICEMEN PATROLLING STREETS OF BETHLEHEM 0.10 2. SV TWO PALESTINIAN POLICEMEN TALKING TO MAN ON STREET 0.16 3. SV PALESTINIAN POLICEMAN WALKING THROUGH STREET OF BETHLEHEM 0.22 4. LAS POLICE PATROLLING STREET 0.29 5. MCU (English) HAN
  • Embargoed: 5th September 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KHAN YOUNIS, GAZA/ JERUSALEM/ RAMALLAH AND BETHLEHEM , WEST BANK
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVA480Z1B2O4X9CSXGX23CAE6AHB
  • Story Text: A fragile Israeli-Palestinian security plan appears
    shaky after Israeli tanks and helicopters raided a refugee
    camp in the Gaza Strip, demolishing buildings and killing one
    Palestinian man when a house collapsed on him.

    In Bethlehem, Palestinian security forces took control over
    the streets, and the city's mayor has voiced an appeal for
    peaceful resistance to the ongoing Israeli occupation.



    Palestinian police patrolled the streets of the West
    Bank town of Bethlehem on Wednesday (August 21) a day after
    Israeli troops pulled out of city and positioned themselves
    around it.

    But hopes that the latest deal between Israel and the
    Palestinian Authority would bring about a halt to the violence
    were shadowed by Israel's incursion into the Khan Younis
    refugee camp in Gaza, and by a war of words between the two
    sides.

    Bethlehem mayor Hanna Nasser said that violent struggle
    against the Israeli occupation has not brought Palestinian
    people positive results and they should resort to peaceful
    means.

    "The intifada should continue in a peaceful manner,
    demonstrating, trying to get the support of peace-lovers
    locally and all over the world, so we will together at the end
    of the road convince the Israelis that there is no peace, no
    stability in this area unless they withdraw from all the
    occupied territories," Nasser said.

    He was speaking the day after dozens of Palestinian
    policemen armed with Kalashnikov and assault rifles were
    deployed in the city as part of the "Gaza, Bethlehem first"
    plan, under which Israel should pull out its troops from these
    areas and hand over the control to the Palestinian police.

    Nasser said that almost two years of violence almost
    completely destroyed the infrastructure in the Palestinian
    territories and worsen the situation for the people.

    Meanwhile, Palestinians in Bethlehem held a peaceful
    gathering in support of their brethren imprisoned in Israeli
    jails.

    Since the beginning of Intifada 22-months ago, Israeli
    forces arrested thousands of Palestinians in various cities of
    the West Bank and Gaza.

    Israel and the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday accused
    each other of violating the agreement.

    Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Daniel Taub said on
    Wednesday (August 21) the Palestinian security forces had done
    nothing to clamp down on violence.

    "The signs are very clear. The signs are clear steps not
    statements, but steps by the Palestinian leadership that they
    are committed to fighting terrorism. At the moment despite the
    statements that we heard following our meeting two days ago
    we haven't seen any steps by the Palestinian leadership that
    they are actually taking this responsibility seriously," Taub
    said, speaking in Jerusalem.

    Speaking outside the Palestinian administration headquarters
    in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Palestinian chief
    negotiator Saeb Erekat, blamed Israel for continuing
    violence and for not showing any willingness to push ahead
    with the implementation of the agreement.

    "At a time when they are saying "Gaza first"," Gaza and
    Bethlehem first" in order to begin a process of Israeli
    withdrawal from all the occupied areas, Israeli tanks are
    making incursion to Tulkarm refugee camp, to Khan Younis
    refugee camp. This must stop and that's why we urgently need
    the third party, we need monitors, international monitors on
    the ground immediately," said Erekat.

    The new security deal was shaken hours later after Israeli
    forces killed the brother of the leader of a militant
    Palestinian group in Ramallah, drawing the threat of
    retaliation.

    Mohammed Saadat was the brother of Ahmed Saadat, the
    leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
    (PFLP), which killed ultra-nationalist Israeli minister
    Rehavam Zeevi last year after Israel killed then-PFLP chief
    Abu Ali Mustafa.

    And in the early hours of Wednesday, Israeli tanks and
    helicopters raided a Gaza Strip refugee camp, destroying
    buildings and killing one man. He died when a house collapsed
    on him during the raid on the southern Khan Younis camp as the
    tanks, backed by helicopters, rolled into the camp before
    dawn.

    The incursion followed the shooting of an Israeli soldier
    by Hamas militants.

    Palestinian residents and security sources said Israeli
    soldiers in up to 20 armoured vehicles entered one area of the
    camp and shouted with megaphones for residents to leave.

    Helicopters circled overhead and the tanks fired machine-guns,
    they said.

    An army statement said forces destroyed two empty
    buildings which it said had "served terrorists as shooting
    posts and shelter".

    Residents said that one of the buildings was blown up and
    that it brought down houses around it, killing a Palestinian
    man and wounding six. Palestinian security sources said it was
    booby-trapped.

    Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said on Army
    Radio on Wednesday he had warned Palestinian security
    officials that Israel would not tolerate any violence.

    Later on Wednesday Palestinian mourners marched in the
    funeral of two of their brethren killed in the last two days
    by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.

    The most recent death was of a man killed during Israel's
    incursion into Khan Younis.

    The earlier casualty was a 15-year-old Palestinian youth
    who was shot dead by Israeli troops in the same troubled area
    of Khan Younis on Tuesday.

    Mourners holding assault rifles marched through the
    streets of Khan Younis, carrying the bodies which were wrapped
    in Palestinian flags. 'There is no god but Allah, the martyr
    is god's beloved', they chanted.

    At least 1,507 Palestinians and 589 Israelis have been
    killed since the Palestinian uprising for independence began
    in September 2000 after peace talks stalled.


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