Posted on 02/09/2002 10:11:49 PM PST by ATOMIC_PUNK
Two Palestinians were injured, one seriously, in the fighting in the Palestinian-controlled village of Tamoun, where the army sought out residents believed to be connected to a deadly shooting attack in a nearby Jewish settlement on Thursday.
On the diplomatic front, European Union foreign ministers meeting in Spain endorsed a French proposal that calls for the swift establishment of a Palestinian state as the first phase of renewed Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Neither Israel nor the Palestinians immediately responded to the plan, though it contained a number of steps the Israelis have rejected.
East of the Jewish settlement of Ariel, a mother and her son were driving when shots were fired at their car, the army said. The mother died at the scene soon after and the boy, who was driving, was evacuated to a hospital with slight injuries, rescue officials said.
In Tamoun, Palestinians threw stones and an explosive device at troops and the soldiers responded with live fire, Israeli military officials said. No soldiers were hurt. The Israeli forces entered the village on Friday in response to a Palestinian attack two days earlier on the Jewish settlement of Hamra that left three Israelis and the Palestinian gunman dead.
Israeli troops arrested 15 Palestinians, who were questioned and later released, Israeli military officials said. Village Mayor Bashar Bani Odeh said about 20 residents were arrested, and Israeli soldiers took over houses, raising the Israeli flag on rooftops while residents were ordered to stay in their homes.
Meanwhile, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Saturday that Palestinians would not let up in their fight against the Israeli military occupation.
"The repeated Israeli escalation against the Palestinians will only strengthen the Palestinians' will to continue their struggle," Arafat said from his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah. He has been confined to the city by Israeli troops for more than two months.
Also, Palestinian security forces were searching Saturday for two missing teen-agers who may have been those killed when a car bomb exploded Friday near the line separating Israel and the West Bank. The blast occurred not far from the boys' village of Deir Abu Daef.
The boys, both aged 17, were friends who belonged to the same clan, Palestinian security sources said. Israeli police said the explosion was a planned bomb attack gone wrong.
In Caceres, Spain, French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine presented a Mideast peace plan that was overwhelmingly accepted by his fellow foreign ministers in the EU. The proposal calls for a Palestinian state that would immediately be recognized by Israel and admitted to the United Nations.
The creation of a Palestinian state must be the "starting point of a negotiating process," Vedrine said as he presented a blueprint of the plan. The document puts the EU at odds with the United States, which has sought to broker a cease-fire as part of a step-by-step approach to resuming Middle East peace negotiations.
The EU plan is almost certain to be rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has insisted on complete calm in the region before relaunching talks on a Mideast settlement. The talks broke down a year ago amid the fighting.
Sharon has acknowledged that a Palestinian state at some future date is likely, but has said he believes it will be years, or even a generation, before the two sides reach a permanent political solution. He has not outlined his plan for a Mideast settlement and has been a staunch opponent of Israeli territorial concessions in the past.
Also Saturday, the father of a 13-year-old Palestinian who died in Israeli custody accused Israeli police of killing his son and demanded an investigation.
Israeli police say the boy, Samer Abu Mialeh, and three other Palestinian youths stabbed an Israeli woman to death on Friday as she was strolling in the Peace Forest, which lies between Jewish and Arab neighborhoods of the city.
The masked Palestinians were seen running from the scene and were caught by police. According to police, Abu Mialeh collapsed and died just after his arrest.
But the boy's father, Ziad Abu Mialeh, said, "the truth is different, my son was killed after they stopped him."
Hundreds of Israelis demonstrated in Tel Aviv Saturday, calling for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. The protesters voiced support for more than 150 soldiers in the Israeli army who refuse to serve in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The proper name, dear correspondents. is terrorists.
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