VARIOUS: PALESTINIAN MILITANT KILLED IN GUN BATTLE WITH ISRAELI SOLDIERS/ MILITANTS SAY THEY HAVE KILLED WOMAN SUSPECTED OF HELPING ISRAELI SECURITY

Record ID: 640550

  • Title: VARIOUS: PALESTINIAN MILITANT KILLED IN GUN BATTLE WITH ISRAELI SOLDIERS/ MILITANTS SAY THEY HAVE KILLED WOMAN SUSPECTED OF HELPING ISRAELI SECURITY
  • Date: 24th August 2002
  • Summary: (U3) JERUSALEM (AUGUST 25, 2002) (REUTERS) SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) SENIOR FOREIGN MINISTRY OFFICIAL MARK SOFER, SAYING: "We are waiting for the Palestinians in Gaza and in Hebron and elsewhere to take the necessary steps. We have not seen that yet. Their moves are not pointing in an encouraging fashion as they had in Bethlehem. When they do so we will move forwards. There will however be a further meeting this week between Palestinian and Israeli security officers on the ground to discuss the implementation or the facilitating of humanitarian and economic measures." (U3) RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (AUGUST 25, 2002) (REUTERS) SMV NABIL ABU RDAINAH, TOP ADVISER TO PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT WALKING OUT OF HIS OFFICE SCU (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) NABIL ABU RDAINAH SAYING: "The Israelis are backing down again from the understanding we reached with them and this is a very dangerous situation and we urge especially the United States to put enough pressure on Israel to withdraw because without withdrawing nothing will happen." SMV NABIL ABU RDAINAH WITH REPORTERS
  • Embargoed: 8th September 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JENIN, RAMALLAH, WEST BANK / UNDISCLOSED LOCATION/JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA41FFSC64ILIZ3Y7M8N979Q83N
  • Story Text: In the latest upsurge of violence in the Middle East a Palestinian militant has been killed in the West Bank town of Jenin during a gun battle with Israeli soldiers and in Tulkarm Palestinian militants have said they killed a Palestinian woman who they accused of helping Israeli security forces track and kill a member of their group.
    Meanwhile, Israel has poured cold water on the immediate prospect of a further withdrawal from reoccupied areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip until Palestinian security forces "take control" of maintaining order in those areas.
    A Palestinian militant was killed on Saturday (August 24) in a gun battle between Palestinians and Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Jenin.
    Israeli military sources confirmed the death and said a second Palestinian gunman was wounded.
    In Tulkarm, a Palestinian woman was killed by Palestinian militants who accused her of helping Israeli security forces track and kill a member of their group.
    The first woman to be killed by militants as a "collaborator" in the 23-month long uprising against Israeli occupation was wrenched from her home and shot several times in the head and chest in a square in Tulkarm, Palestinian and hospital sources said.
    The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group linked to President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction and on a list of groups the United States considers to be terrorists, said in a phone call to Reuters it shot the woman on Saturday evening.
    The so-called "Gaza-Bethlehem First" arrangement, in which Israel pulled forces out of Bethlehem last week, was viewed as a test for a wider truce and withdrawal from six other West Bank cities reoccupied after suicide bombings in Israel in June.
    The outbreak of violence underlined the fragility of a week-old deal, the so-called "Gaza-Bethlehem First"
    arrangement, to pull Israeli troops out of Palestinian areas in return for calm.
    Under the arrangement, Israel pulled forces out of Bethlehem last week, one of seven West Bank cities reoccupied after suicide bombings in Israel in June.
    The withdrawal was viewed as a test for a wider ceasefire to end the bloodshed in the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
    But a pledge to ease restrictions on Palestinian travel in the Gaza Strip has yet to be carried out and Israeli officials poured cold water on the prospect that a new withdrawal from Hebron was in store in the near future.
    "We are waiting for the Palestinians in Gaza and in Hebron and elsewhere to take the necessary steps. We have not seen that yet. Their moves are not pointing in an encouraging fashion as they had in Bethlehem. When they do so we will move forwards," Mark Sofer, a senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official said.
    Nabil Abu Rdainah, a top adviser to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, said on Sunday (August 25) Israel had essentially frozen the "Gaza-Bethlehem First" agreement.
    "The Israelis are backing down again from the understanding we reached with them and this is a very dangerous situation," Rdainah said.
    "We urge especially the United States to put enough pressure on Israel to withdraw because without withdrawing nothing will happen," he added.
    The Israeli Defence Ministry denied the charge in a statement, saying talks on further measures to ease crippling curfews and closures on Palestinian areas would resume this week.
    The arrangement had also been challenged from the start by Palestinian militant groups who rejected renewed dialogue with Israel and vowed to keep up attacks.
    At least 1,510 Palestinians and 589 Israelis have been killed since the start of the revolt in September 2000 after talks on establishing a Palestinian state stalled.
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