GAZA CITY, 27 August — A Palestinian boy was killed and several people were injured yesterday in a wave of early morning Israeli air raids on Palestinian police stations.
The deadly strikes by US-made F-16 fighter-bombers, launched in retaliation for the killing of five Israelis on Saturday, buried anew expectations for the salvage of a dormant US-brokered truce, first unveiled in mid-June.
Palestinian Muhammad Saharf, 14, was blown to pieces by a tank shell when Israeli tanks and troops stormed more than two kilometers (1.2 miles) into the Gaza Strip, shelling and machine-gunning police stations in one of the biggest incursion into Palestinian-controlled territory since the intifada erupted.
One Palestinian policeman was killed in the battle to resist the army raid, while more than a dozen Palestinians were wounded in the spate of overnight strikes.
An unidentified Israel man later was shot dead by Palestinian gunmen in a parked car in northern Israel, close to the demarcation line with the Palestinian West Bank, Israeli public radio said, quoting police.
The killings came shortly after Israel unleashed F-16 fighter bombers to destroy Palestinian police stations in Gaza City and Deir Al-Balah in the Gaza Strip and in Salfit, near Nablus in the West Bank. Yesterday’s violence brought the death toll close to 750 for the 11-month Palestinian uprising or intifada.
Late last night, two Israeli Apache helicopters destroyed a building housing a Palestinian police station in Tulkarm in the West Bank. The two-story building was razed but there were no casualties, Palestinian security sources said.
Also yesterday, a Palestinian fisherman, Khalil Zeid, 60, was badly wounded by a shot to the head fired from Israeli boats which opened fire at his vessel in the waters off El Sudanyeh, north of Gaza City.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat yesterday arrived back from a tour of Asia and renewed his appeal for international observers, before inspecting the ruins of Palestinian police stations in the Gaza Strip.
Ignoring US President George W. Bush’s pointed criticism of his efforts to halt the spiraling violence, Arafat offered his own challenge to Bush upon his arrival here: “It is his (Bush’s) duty to send international observers with the briefest delay.”
Arafat also called for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to implement the internationally backed Mitchell plan. “If Sharon wants peace, he must apply the Mitchell plan and all other concluded agreements,” he said.
Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak said Arafat could not stop the violence on his own and urged Washington to play a greater role in the Middle East.
Speaking to a gathering of students in Cairo, Mubarak assailed Israeli demands that Arafat stop all acts of violence before peace talks can resume, saying: “They accuse other people, but they should ask themselves where Israeli security is and they should know that Arafat cannot control everything.”
