Posted on 12/09/2005 9:11:32 AM PST by NormsRevenge
JERUSALEM - Israel rounded up 19 Islamic militants in the West Bank on Friday and pounded the Gaza Strip with artillery fire, pressing forward with a crackdown in the wake of a suicide bombing at a shopping mall this week.
In the days since Monday's suicide bombing, which killed five people in the coastal city of Netanya, Israel has killed three militants in airstrikes on the Gaza Strip and rounded up dozens of others in the West Bank.
The army said it carried out an arrest sweep overnight near Tulkarem in the northern West Bank. Ten of the suspects belonged to Islamic Jihad, which carried out the attack, the army said.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has also ordered the arrests of those involved in the suicide bombing. Islamic Jihad leaders say Palestinian security forces have rounded up more than 80 members, including three militants arrested Friday in the village of Monday's bomber. Palestinian officials have confirmed only 17 arrests.
Abu Majd, an Islamic Jihad spokesman in the northern West Bank, said the Palestinian crackdown has weakened his group. "These people are not our top members, but these arrests still affect us," he said. He said those arrested including low-level operatives, university leaders and even high school students.
Even so, the action by the Palestinian security forces fall far short of Israeli demands that Islamic Jihad be dismantled altogether.
Friday's flare-up in violence came a day after an Israeli airstrike killed two Palestinian militants holed up in a house in the northern Gaza Strip, and a Palestinian man fatally stabbed an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint in the West Bank.
The army closed the Qalandia checkpoint — used by thousands of Palestinians to enter Jerusalem each day — after the stabbing. Military officials said it would be closed for at least several days.
Late Thursday, Palestinian militants in Gaza fired two mortar shells into open areas in Israel, causing no damage or injuries, the army said. Israel responded overnight with artillery fire aimed at suspected launch sites used by the militants in Gaza.
In other violence, Israeli troops Friday caught a Palestinian teenager who had strapped explosives to his body. Soldiers spotted the 15-year-old boy at a checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus and grew suspicious because he was wearing a heavy coat on a warm day.
Soldiers stopped the teen, and discovered two metal cans filled with explosives and shrapnel taped to his body. The teenager was arrested, and the cans were destroyed by an army bomb squad, the army said.
Major militant groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, denied involvement in the incident.
The increasing violence is likely to influence separate Palestinian and Israeli election campaigns.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, fighting for re-election as head of a new party, faces calls for stiff action against the Palestinians from hard-liners of the Likud Party. Sharon recently left Likud to form a centrist party, saying it would give him more freedom to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Israel's general election is set for March 28.
Palestinians go to the polls on Jan. 25 to elect a new parliament, and the Islamic group Hamas is contesting the election for the first time.
Although Abbas has condemned attacks like the Netanya bombing, his inability to restore order and take control of the streets of the West Bank and Gaza broadcasts weakness and may hurt his Fatah Party in the election.
A prolonged crackdown on Palestinian militants could also turn Palestinian public opinion against Abbas, since he might be viewed as working too closely with the Israelis.
Palestinian youths march holding Islamic flags during a rally organized by the Islamic group Hamas calling for reform in the Palestinian Authority and an end to the arrest by the Palestinian government of Islamic militants in the West Bank town of Ramallah Friday Dec. 9, 2005. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
http://reuters.myway.com/article/20051209/2005-12-09T155608Z_01_DIT957382_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-MIDEAST-HAMAS-DC.html
Hamas chief says truce with Israel is over
Dec 9, 10:56 AM (ET)
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Palestinian group Hamas chief-in-exile Khaled Mishaal said on Friday a nine-month truce with Israel was over.
"There is no room for truce. I say to our brothers in the (Palestinian) Authority that we are witnessing political stagnation...," Mishaal told a rally in the Syrian capital Damascus. "I say it loudly, we will not enter a new truce and our people are preparing for a new round of conflict."
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
I say to our brothers in the (Palestinian) Authority that we are witnessing political stagnation..
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Welcome to the Modern Age, Khaled.
Now, say your final prayers, idiot.
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Thanks for the snip form that article, Esther Ruth.
excerpt
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4514548.stm
Last Updated: Friday, 9 December 2005, 16:55 GMT
Hamas to end truce with Israel
Meshaal leads Hamas from his Damascus headquarters
The political leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas has said it will not renew its informal ceasefire with Israel that expires at the end of year.
Khaled Meshaal told a rally in the Syrian capital Damascus his group was preparing for a new round of conflict.
The truce begun in February was based on Israel ending its attacks on Palestinians and releasing prisoners.
Hamas had already said it would pull out of the truce when Israel killed a military leader in November.
Addressing the crowd at the Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus, Mr Meshaal said there was no room for a truce.
"I say to our brothers in the [Palestinian] Authority that we are witnessing political stagnation," he said.
"I say it loudly, we will not enter a new truce and our people are preparing for a new round of conflict."
Yeah, no bias in that headline at all... it should read "Israel continues to defend herself" or "Israel goes after terrorist killers".
Blablabla.....
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/656000.html
Last update - 19:36 09/12/2005
Hamas says truce with Israel intact until end of the year
By Reuters
A Hamas spokesman said on Friday that a nine-month-old truce with Israel was still in effect, clarifying an earlier statement by a leader of the Islamic militant group indicating it had been called off.
"Hamas confirms that calm is still on, as of this moment, and this is a national consensus," said Mushir al-Masri, spokesman for Hamas in Gaza. "This is the official and final Hamas decision and position."
Earlier, Khaled Meshal, the Hamas chief-in-exile, told a rally in the Syrian capital Damascus: "The truce period that we had in the past is enough."
"There is no room for truce. I say to our brothers in the (Palestinian) Authority that we are witnessing political stagnation," he added.
The truce was agreed in February by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as part of efforts to stem fighting that erupted in 2000 and smooth Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Abbas coaxed Hamas and other factions into honoring the ceasefire until the end of 2005. But the relative quiet has been marred by intermittent violence.
Meshal told the rally: "I say it loudly, we will not enter a new truce and our people are preparing for a new round of conflict."
But another spokesman for Hamas in Gaza said a decision was pending on renewing the truce, which has allowed the Islamic group to turn to political activism ahead of a Palestinian parliamentary election in January.
"Pressure should be made on the (Israeli) occupation to compel them to answer these conditions before there are any new talks about extending the calm," spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said, referring to Palestinian demands that Israel suspend military operations and release security prisoners.
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More accurately Israel is fighting the war against terror, a job the palestinians agreed to take over in 1995.
Isn't this the spot that Israel forced their citizens to vacate a few weeks ago.
There are no so-called "palestinians", but various conglomerations of Arabs, the majority of whom should be killed or kicked out of Israel.
I concur. I would select option 1.
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