MIDDLE EAST: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER SHARON MEETS WITH HIS CABINET AS PALESTINIAN LEADERSHIP MEETS WITH EGYPTIAN OFFICIALS AS DEMONSTRATORS CALL FOR REVENGE AND PEACE

Record ID: 645921

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER SHARON MEETS WITH HIS CABINET AS PALESTINIAN LEADERSHIP MEETS WITH EGYPTIAN OFFICIALS AS DEMONSTRATORS CALL FOR REVENGE AND PEACE
  • Date: 11th June 2003
  • Summary: (W3) JERUSALEM (JUNE 11, 2003) (REUTERS) MLV/TRACK: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON ENTERING CABINET MEETING AT HIS OFFICE FOREIGN MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU ARRIVING FOR MEETING MV/ZOOM OUT/MLV: SHARON SITTING AT MEETING WITH OTHER MINISTERS VARIOUS: MORE OF MINISTERS AT MEETING (2 SHOTS) MLV: (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) RAFAH, SOUTHERN GAZA (JUNE 11,2003) (REUTERS) VARIOUS: OF STRUCTURES DESTROYED BY ARMY (2 SHOTS) LV/PULL OUT: ISRAELI FLAG FLYING IN BACKGROUND BEHIND DESTROYED BUILDINGS (U3) GAZA (JUNE 11, 2003) (REUTERS) VARIOUS: OF FUNERAL PROCESSION THROUGH GAZA CITY STREET, PEOPLE WITH FLAGS, SOUND OF GUNFIRE (4 SHOTS) MLV: HAMAS SPOKESMAN MAHMOUD AL-ZAHAR IN SITTING ROOM SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) MAHMOUD AL-ZAHAR SAYING: "The crime that tried to be committed yesterday was a big crime and the target was an extraordinary target. For this reason, and justified by our religion, eye for eye, nose for nose, it means that child for child, leader for leader, civilian for civilian, military for military, that the Izz a-Deen al-Qassam (Brigades) opened the field widely, considering everybody inside the occupied territories, 48 or 67, as a target." MLV: OF AL-ZAHAR SAT ON COUCH (W4) RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (JUNE 11, 2003) (REUTERS) VARIOUS: EGYPTIAN INTELLIGENCE CHIEF OMAR SULEIMAN GETTING OUT OF CAR AND MEETING PALESTINIAN SECURITY CHIEF MOHAMMAD DAHLAN AT PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY HEADQUARTERS, THEN ENTERING BUILDING VARIOUS: OF MEETING TABLE WITH PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT, PRIME MINISTER ABU MAZEN AND SULEIMEN, AND OTHER OFFICIALS (5 SHOTS) GV: OF PALESTINIAN FLAG MV: GUARD OUTSIDE HEADQUARTERS WS: OF EXTERIOR (U4) RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (JUNE 11, 2003) (REUTERS) MLV: SULEIMAN AND ABU MAZEN LEAVING PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT'S HEADQUARTERS AND TAKING LEAVE OF EACH OTHER MV: SOLDIERS WATCHING VARIOUS: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ARAFAT SAYING: "Yesterday, there was an important meeting here with our brothers, but unfortunately, some of (sic) Hamas couldn't make it. Their representative could not attend, but in Gaza they followed up the meeting. We will also follow up on the dialogue with all Palestinian factions in the PLO". SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ABU MAZEN SAYING: "....Hosni Mubarak about the current situation and about Egyptian-Palestinian efforts -- political, economic and on security. He explained to Arafat the Egyptian position and Arafat explained the difficulties of the Palestinian people and the latest current situation, particularly what happened in Gaza. The national Palestinian dialogue is needed and we insist upon it and we are willing to continue. Our hands are extended to all brothers in all factions." ARAFAT AND ABU MAZEN THEN LEAVE.
  • Embargoed: 26th June 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM / RAMALLAH, WEST BANK / RAFAH, SOUTHERN GAZA / GAZA/ TEL AVIV, ISRAEL
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA4J8S07R86BZ7OUWYRJ5MO77T8
  • Story Text: Israel's 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, Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, that could endanger an already tenuous U.S.-backed "road map" to Middle East peace.
    In Gaza, hundreds of Palestinians have marched in the funeral of three of the five civilians killed in helicopter attacks in the Gaza Strip.
    Egyptian Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman has met Palestinian officials in Ramallah to try to narrow differences between the militant Hamas group and the Palestinian Authority. After the talks, both President Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Abu Mazen referred to an internal Palestinian dialogue to implement a halt on militant attacks stipulated by the latest U.S.-backed peace plan.
    Israel on Wednesday (June 11) defended itself against the U.S. rebuke for its attempted assassination of a Palestinian militant leader that further undermined a Middle East peace plan.
    Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered aides to turn over intelligence to U.S. officials to back accusations that Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, the public face of the radical Islamic group Hamas, had been coordinating attacks on Israelis.
    Tuesday's (June 10) helicopter attack, which wounded al-Rantissi, raised the spectre of another welter of 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 said he is committed 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 coordinating 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."
    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, including what Palestinian witnesses said was a mosque and a police post.
    In Gaza, the funerals of three of the five victims of Tuesday's helicopter attacks took place on Wednesday as Hamas spokesman Mahmoud Al-Zahar described Tuesday's attacks as a "crime" on an "extraordinary target".
    "For this reason, and justified by our religion, eye for eye, nose for nose, it means that child for child, leader for leader, civilian for civilian, military for military, that the Izz a-Deen al-Qassam (Brigades) opened the field widely, considering everybody inside the occupied territories, 458 or 67, as a target," he said.
    In Ramallah, Egyptian Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman met Palestinian officials to try to narrow differences between the militant Hamas group and Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Mazen.
    So far, Hamas has rejected calls for ceasefire talks with Abu Mazen, and it vowed on Wednesday (June 11) to extract revenge on Israel for its attempt on the life of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantissi in Tuesday's (June 10) helicopter strike.
    But, after meeting Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, Abu Mazen said the Palestinian Authority was ready to renew its dialogue with Hamas. Egypt has been participating in talks between the Palestinian Authority and militant groups to try to bring about a truce that allows for negotiations with Israel.
    Public outcry in Israel against the attacks has been harsh and, in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, conscientious objectors from the Israeli military voiced their outrage about the move outside the ministry of defence.
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