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ENLARGEGaza prepares for Jewish evacuation
Israeli soldiers set up tents as they construct a new Israeli military base that will house soldiers taking part in the evacuation of Jewish settlers later this summer, near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel just outside the Gush Katif bloc of settlements in the Gaza Strip, Tuesday June 21, 2005. Israel will evacuate all twenty-one Jewish settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank under Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan later this summer.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met on Tuesday for the first time since declaring a February truce, but the summit was clouded by Israel’s arrest of 52 Islamic Jihad activists and a missile strike in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has been scornful of Abbas’ strategy for reining in extremists, which favors persuasion over confrontation, and Sharon was expected to demand the Palestinian leader take aggressive action against militants.
As the summit began in Jerusalem, Israeli aircraft fired two missiles at an abandoned structure in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials and witnesses said. The Israeli army had no information on the airstrike but said Palestinian mortar and rocket fire had come from the area earlier in the day. No injuries were immediately reported.
The pre-dawn roundup of militants came a day after an Israeli was killed in an ambush by Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank, an attack Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for. That shooting was the third Islamic Jihad attack in as many days. One Israeli soldier and two militants died in the previous clashes.
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said the military changed its tack because the Palestinian Authority has been “ineffectual” in restraining militants.
“When we found out that the Islamic Jihad was carrying out acts of terror and wasn’t adhering to the truce...then there was no choice but to take resolute action,” Mofaz said. “That activity will continue everywhere, and at all times.”
After Palestinian militants declared an informal cease-fire early this year, Israel agreed to go after only those on the brink of carrying out attacks. But with Islamic Jihad stepping up violence this week, the military decided it will no longer limit its operations to “ticking bombs,” but will go after anyone affiliated with the group, said Lt. Col. Erez Winner, a senior Israeli commander in the West Bank.
“We operated against this group in a restrained manner,” he said.
But “Islamic Jihad has taken itself absolutely out of the (cease-fire) agreement with its attacks, and so from our view, we are operating fully against them, as we did before,” Winner said. “Anyone we know who is affiliated with this organization is a legitimate target.”
He said he didn’t expect more mass arrests, because the sweep had netted many of the militants Israel has been watching.
Khadr Adnan, an Islamic Jihad spokesman in the West Bank, said if the Palestinian Authority and Egypt, which brokered the cease-fire declaration, do not take action to ensure Israel’s commitment to the truce, “then we will consider ourselves to be outside (it), and will call upon all Palestinian factions to do the same.”
Despite the crackdown, violence continued.
Tawfiq Abu Khoussa, spokesman for the Palestinian Interior Ministry, said Israel’s missile strike in Gaza was in Beit Lahiya, close to the Israeli border. He said Palestinian security forces were rushing to the scene.
Earlier Tuesday, Palestinian militants launched a homemade rocket at an Israeli settlement in Gaza and opened fire three times at soldiers guarding Gaza settlements, the army said. Overnight, seven mortar shells were fired at Gaza settlements.
Islamic Jihad is the smaller of the two main militant groups in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. In addition to this week’s violence, the group carried out the deadliest single attack since the truce declaration, a Feb. 25 bombing of a Tel Aviv nightclub that killed five Israelis.
The larger militant group, Hamas, has been relatively quiet as it tries to cement a political following ahead of upcoming Palestinian legislative elections.
The spike in violence has compromised recent efforts to coordinate Israel’s planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip with the Palestinians, and stoked fears that a renewed chance for peacemaking might be lost. Sharon has said a smooth withdrawal could lead to a resumption of peace talks.
Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said the Palestinian attacks and Israeli arrests endangered the cease-fire, and “have really cast a dark cloud” over the Sharon-Abbas meeting.
“I want to condemn the cycle of violence that preceded the anticipated summit today,” said Erekat, a member of the Palestinian delegation at the meeting. “The Israeli arrests this morning will not add anything to sustaining the quiet.”
Erekat said Abbas and Sharon would discuss security issues, the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and four northern West Bank settlements, and Israel’s promise, made under the cease-fire, to withdraw from West Bank towns. Israel has withdrawn from only two of the five towns slated for handover, accusing the Palestinian security forces of being unprepared.
Israel has been scornful of Abbas’ strategy for reining in extremists, which favors persuasion over confrontation, and Sharon was expected to demand the Palestinian leader take aggressive action against militants.
As the summit began in Jerusalem, Israeli aircraft fired two missiles at an abandoned structure in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials and witnesses said. The Israeli army had no information on the airstrike but said Palestinian mortar and rocket fire had come from the area earlier in the day. No injuries were immediately reported.
The pre-dawn roundup of militants came a day after an Israeli was killed in an ambush by Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank, an attack Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for. That shooting was the third Islamic Jihad attack in as many days. One Israeli soldier and two militants died in the previous clashes.
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said the military changed its tack because the Palestinian Authority has been “ineffectual” in restraining militants.
“When we found out that the Islamic Jihad was carrying out acts of terror and wasn’t adhering to the truce...then there was no choice but to take resolute action,” Mofaz said. “That activity will continue everywhere, and at all times.”
After Palestinian militants declared an informal cease-fire early this year, Israel agreed to go after only those on the brink of carrying out attacks. But with Islamic Jihad stepping up violence this week, the military decided it will no longer limit its operations to “ticking bombs,” but will go after anyone affiliated with the group, said Lt. Col. Erez Winner, a senior Israeli commander in the West Bank.
“We operated against this group in a restrained manner,” he said.
But “Islamic Jihad has taken itself absolutely out of the (cease-fire) agreement with its attacks, and so from our view, we are operating fully against them, as we did before,” Winner said. “Anyone we know who is affiliated with this organization is a legitimate target.”
He said he didn’t expect more mass arrests, because the sweep had netted many of the militants Israel has been watching.
Khadr Adnan, an Islamic Jihad spokesman in the West Bank, said if the Palestinian Authority and Egypt, which brokered the cease-fire declaration, do not take action to ensure Israel’s commitment to the truce, “then we will consider ourselves to be outside (it), and will call upon all Palestinian factions to do the same.”
Despite the crackdown, violence continued.
Tawfiq Abu Khoussa, spokesman for the Palestinian Interior Ministry, said Israel’s missile strike in Gaza was in Beit Lahiya, close to the Israeli border. He said Palestinian security forces were rushing to the scene.
Earlier Tuesday, Palestinian militants launched a homemade rocket at an Israeli settlement in Gaza and opened fire three times at soldiers guarding Gaza settlements, the army said. Overnight, seven mortar shells were fired at Gaza settlements.
Islamic Jihad is the smaller of the two main militant groups in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. In addition to this week’s violence, the group carried out the deadliest single attack since the truce declaration, a Feb. 25 bombing of a Tel Aviv nightclub that killed five Israelis.
The larger militant group, Hamas, has been relatively quiet as it tries to cement a political following ahead of upcoming Palestinian legislative elections.
The spike in violence has compromised recent efforts to coordinate Israel’s planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip with the Palestinians, and stoked fears that a renewed chance for peacemaking might be lost. Sharon has said a smooth withdrawal could lead to a resumption of peace talks.
Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said the Palestinian attacks and Israeli arrests endangered the cease-fire, and “have really cast a dark cloud” over the Sharon-Abbas meeting.
“I want to condemn the cycle of violence that preceded the anticipated summit today,” said Erekat, a member of the Palestinian delegation at the meeting. “The Israeli arrests this morning will not add anything to sustaining the quiet.”
Erekat said Abbas and Sharon would discuss security issues, the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and four northern West Bank settlements, and Israel’s promise, made under the cease-fire, to withdraw from West Bank towns. Israel has withdrawn from only two of the five towns slated for handover, accusing the Palestinian security forces of being unprepared.
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