|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Israeli sources: IDF kills Palestinian attacker
From Kelly Wallace
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian in Gaza after he shot at Israeli soldiers and threw grenades at them Saturday, Israeli military sources said. The soldiers were guarding the Israeli settlement of Morag, the sources said. The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Palestinian militant group, claimed responsibility for the man's attack on the soldiers. One soldier was lightly injured. In a separate incident Saturday, Palestinian medical sources said an 11-year-old girl was shot and killed in the town of Rafah, in southern Gaza, by an Israeli tank shell. Israeli military sources said they were checking the report. They said a Palestinian threw a grenade toward Israeli forces who returned fire. The sources said the soldiers did not see anyone hit and that there were no other reports of anyone having been shot. The Israel Defense Forces has not received any official complaint from the Palestinians about the incident, which typically takes place after a Palestinian civilian is injured, an Israeli source said. Gaza roads blockedBoth incidents came after Israel blocked roads across Gaza Saturday, effectively dividing the territory into three parts. The move was in response to the shooting death of a rabbi Friday by members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, according to the IDF. Israeli troops shut down two main junctions in Gaza -- Gush Khatif and Netzarim -- "due to an increase in terror attacks," and shut down all traffic on the main north-south highway, according to the IDF. Many areas of the region have effectively been shut down. Israel said, however, that it will allow humanitarian aid workers to travel through checkpoints. Palestinian Islamic Jihad is a militant group dedicated to the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel. It operates out of Gaza and carries out attacks there and in the West Bank and Israel. The group has carried out military operations against Israeli soldiers and Israeli civilians. It introduced suicide bombings to Israel in 1992. In Friday's Gaza attack, the rabbi was in his car with his wife and six children when Palestinians opened fire from a nearby house, according to settlers. The Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz identified the rabbi as Yitzhak Arameh -- a member of the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Netzer Hazani. None of the other members of the family was injured, Ha'aretz reported. At least three suspected Palestinian Islamic Jihad members were arrested Saturday morning in Abu el-Agin in Gaza, in connection with the rabbi's killing, according to Palestinian security sources. Israeli tanks rolled into the town, destroying two houses, including one belonging to the suspects. Middle East Quartet supports peace planMeanwhile, delegates from the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union -- a group known as the Middle East Quartet -- support almost all of a U.S.-sponsored "road map" that U.S. President George W. Bush described as "a way forward" after months of violence. A draft drawn up by the quartet says the ultimate goal for the troubled region is a "final and comprehensive settlement of the Israel-Palestinian conflict by 2005," a process that must first begin with an immediate cease-fire. "A settlement, negotiated between the parties, will result in the emergence of an independent, democratic and viable Palestinian state living side-by-side in peace and security with Israel and its other neighbors. The settlement will resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and end the occupation that began in 1967," the seven-page draft says. (Full story)
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
