MIDEAST: ARIEL SHARON HOLDS A CABINET MEETING AS HAMAS HOLDS A RALLY IN NABLUS AND ISRAELI SETTLERS OCCUPY A WEST BANK OUTPOST

Record ID: 645909

  • Title: MIDEAST: ARIEL SHARON HOLDS A CABINET MEETING AS HAMAS HOLDS A RALLY IN NABLUS AND ISRAELI SETTLERS OCCUPY A WEST BANK OUTPOST
  • Date: 10th June 2003
  • Summary: (W3) JERUSALEM (JUNE 11, 2003) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR: ISRAELI GOVERNMENT BUILDING ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON ENTERING CABINET MEETING AT HIS OFFICE FOREIGN MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU ARRIVING FOR MEETING MINISTER OF DEFENCE SHAUL MOFAZ ARRIVING MV/PULL OUT: SHARON SITTING AT MEETING WITH OTHER MINISTERS MORE OF MINISTERS AT MEETING VARIOUS: (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON SAYING: "I am starting the cabinet meeting. We have today a complex and heavy issue, so we will start directly with that issue, so we'll get to work." (W3) NABLUS, WEST BANK (JUNE 10, 2003) (REUTERS) WS: OF MASKED HAMAS MEN MARCHING IN STREETS OF NABLUS WITH GREEN HAMAS BANNERS AND GUNS SCU: MASKED HAMAS MAN READING OUT PROCLAMATION CU: MASKED MEN HOLDING GUNS VARIOUS: OF CHANTING SUPPORTERS MARCHING THROUGH STREETS (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 25th June 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM/ HAVAT GILAD OUTPOST AND NABLUS, WEST BANK/ RAFAH, SOUTHERN GAZA
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA4N7K7DUGYJ4T8JQCB115MTYEX
  • Story Text: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has come under rare fire from the White House for Israel's attempted assassination of a high-profile Palestinian militant leader that could endanger an already tenuous U.S.-backed "road map" to Middle East peace.
    The plan mandates Israel dismantling what it calls illegal outposts built on occupied land, but Jewish settlers have vowed to fight the move.
    Israeli Prime Minster Ariel Sharon has come under rare fire from the White House for its attempted assassination of a high-profile Palestinian militant leader that could endanger an already tenuous U.S.-backed "road map" to Middle East peace.
    Tuesday's (June 10) helicopter attack, which wounded Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi of Hamas, raised the spectre of another welter tit-for-tat bloodshed undermining the new moderate Palestinian premier's bid to sideline militants hostile to negotiated peace.
    Another violent spree by militants, as Hamas gunmen swiftly threatened in response to the attempt on Rantissi, could also halt Israel's evacuation of settler outposts on occupied land required by a peace plan it accepted only under U.S. pressure.
    U.S. President George W. Bush vowed to persevere with the road map but said the assault on Rantissi could weaken Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who wants militants to call off a campaign of suicide bombings and ambush shootings.
    Bush's aides conveyed those points to Israeli and Palestinian officials, pressuring them to stick to the letter and spirit of the road map, which stipulates reciprocal concessions leading to a Palestinian state by 2005.
    Sharon has committed said to the latest peace plan but also often reiterates that Israel is not prepared to surrender its right to self-defence, and Israel said on Tuesday that Rantissi was co-ordinating attacks by Hamas and two other militant groups, including a joint ambush of an army post in Gaza's Erez area that killed four soldiers.
    Witnesses said two helicopter gunships fired seven missiles that set Rantissi's car ablaze in Gaza City, killing one of his aides and a woman bystander and wounding about 20 people. Rantissi, a 55-year-old paediatrician, leapt clear just in time and was hospitalised for shrapnel wounds that were not life-threatening.
    Hamas militants responded by firing rockets into a town in nearby Israel -- five people were treated for shock -- and this prompted a second Israeli helicopter attack that killed three Palestinians -- all civilians -- and wounded 32 other people.
    The Israeli army said the helicopters were trying to hit a Hamas rocket squad spotted fleeing from the area.
    The U.S. has branded Hamas a "terrorist organisation."
    The endangered peace plan also stipulates that Israeli scrap scores of what it calls illegal outposts built by Jewish settlers on occupied West Bank land.
    Waiting for Supreme Court decision on the legality of Israeli authorities dismantling the hilltops outposts by force, settler dug in on Tuesday and Wednesday at the sites slated to be dismantled and swore to fight the move.
    In what has become an almost daily occurrence in the 32 months of conflict, Israeli army bulldozers razed several structures in the southern Gaza Strip in the early hours on Wednesday (June 11), including what Palestinian witnesses said was a mosque and a police post.
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