- Title: GAZA: Violence in Gaza as Hamas welcomes Quartet stance
- Date: 21st September 2006
- Summary: EXTERIOR OF PRESIDENTIAL HEADQUARTERS IN GAZA AT NIGHT
- Embargoed: 6th October 2006 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: War / Fighting
- Reuters ID: LVA4EI0SA513HC9MQ953KXXPU15O
- Story Text: Israeli forces killed five Palestinians, including three teenagers, in raids across the Gaza Strip on Thursday (September 21), Palestinian medics said.
An Israeli shell killed three Palestinians near a rocket launcher in northern Gaza shortly after two make-shift rockets were fired into Israel, damaging a water pipe and a building.
Palestinian residents and witnesses said the three were teenage shepherds.
An Israeli military spokesman said the three had been tampering with a rocket launcher when they were fired upon.
Earlier, a woman, 35, died after soldiers stormed a house belonging to a member of the Hamas militant group near the southern town of Rafah. The Israeli army had no comment.
Israeli soldiers also killed a militant from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is part of President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah group, during an exchange of fire in the area. A military spokesman confirmed that troops had fired at a gunman.
Israel blew up a building where troops clashed with grenade-throwing militants.
Rafah is an area where Israel believes a soldier abducted by Gazan gunmen in a June 25 border raid, Corporal Gilad Shalit, might be held.
Palestinian witnesses said the army blew up a two-storey home of two Hamas militants, who are brothers. The building was destroyed and the whereabouts of the militants were unknown.
It was unclear whether their home was the same building the army spokesman said troops had blown up. Israel has often carried out planned demolitions of homes of militants.
The raids followed an increase in rocket attacks from Gaza on southern Israel, including two fired at the town of Sderot early on Thursday, which caused no casualties.
The troops swept into Rafah, a town along the Egyptian border, under darkness in lightly armoured jeeps, and an Israeli transport helicopter landed at the site after clashes erupted, possibly to evacuate casualties, witnesses said.
Israeli forces have mounted several major operations in Gaza since Shalit's capture, killing more than 215 Palestinians, including civilians.
Israel quit Gaza last year after 38 years of occupation in what it called a bid to defuse violence.
Also on Thursday the ruling Hamas militant group said a statement by the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators was a sign of progress that could lead to the easing of a Western aid embargo.
Israel said the statement "maintains the principle" that any unity government between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction must still meet the three Quartet conditions: recognize Israel, renounce violence and abide by interim peace deals.
Western diplomats said the Quartet statement amounted to a softening in Washington's position that could clear the way for the European Union to expand an existing aid program for the Palestinians.
The EU aid program bypasses the Hamas-led government, and Western diplomats said they saw little chance of a swift resumption of direct aid to any Hamas-led government, though diplomatic contacts could start.
A Western aid embargo has prevented the existing Hamas-led Palestinian Authority from paying salaries to its 165,000 workers since March, when the Islamic militant group took power, increasing poverty and lawlessness in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.
In its statement issued on Wednesday, the Quartet -- composed of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia -- endorsed Abbas's efforts to establish a national unity government with Hamas, which is still officially committed to the destruction of Israel.
The Quartet said it hoped the platform of the unity government would "reflect" the three conditions, but stopped short of insisting that the new government explicitly meet the conditions. The Quartet also urged Israel to hand over withheld tax revenues to the Palestinians.
"The decision by the Quartet reflects a progressive position and in particular when it deals with the formation of a unity government, and we hope that this position will contribute to stopping all forms of political and economic siege and formally recognizing the Palestinian government, and imposing pressure on the Israeli government in stopping all acts of violence and recognizing the rights of the Palestinian people." Sami Abu Zuhri a Hamas spokesman told Reuters.
Ahmed Youssef, political adviser to Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, said the Quartet statement showed new "political flexibility and understanding".
A senior Israeli government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States agreed to soften its position in order to satisfy the Europeans. But the source said the United States and Israel saw little chance of a Palestinian unity government being formed anytime soon.
Israel has said that it would consider releasing the tax revenues to the Palestinians and taking other "positive steps" if the unity government met the three Quartet conditions and secured the release of a captured Israeli soldier.
Former Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom of the right-wing Likud party called the Quartet statement "a real policy collapse" for Israel.
Shalom said a decision by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to hold talks in the future with Abbas, while Hamas remain in power, gave "a green light to the world to speak to Hamas."
"The statement of the quartet re-affirms the principals that there can be no talks to a Palestinian government that does not accept the three bench marks: recognizing Israel's right to exist, renouncing terrorism and accepting the signed agreements and the peace process. And I think it's understood, in the international community, that recognizing, giving legitimacy to a Palestinian government that doesn't accept those bench marks and is recognizing, giving legitimacy, to the extremists is only going to pull the rug out from under the moderates." Mark Regev, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, told Reuters.
Abbas and Haniyeh agreed last week to form a coalition government in a bid to ease the aid embargo and curb civil unrest. But after Washington raised objections and Hamas sent mixed signals about its willingness to abide by interim agreements, Abbas froze talks. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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