OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 10 January — Two Palestinians killed four Israeli soldiers yesterday, after weeks of a lull in violence. The Palestinian activists were later shot dead by Israeli troops. The Izz El-Deen Al-Qassam brigades of the Hamas claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn raid, which was condemned by President George W. Bush and the Palestinian Authority.
The group said in a statement that Israel’s seizure of a shipload of arms, which Israel said were bound for the Palestinians, was a factor behind the decision to attack the army post at Kerem Shalom, a village near the border with Gaza and Egypt.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon blamed Palestinian President Yasser Arafat for the attack, as well as the arms smuggling attempt, saying Israel would review its policy toward the Palestinian Authority in the light of the two incidents.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell urged Palestinian President Yasser Arafat o to urgently provide an explanation over the shipment of arms. "The secretary did talk to Chairman Arafat this morning and reminded him of the seriousness that we attach to this issue and the urgent need for a full explanation," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said of Powell’s telephone conversation with Arafat earlier in the day.
The Israeli security Cabinet met but did not immediately say how Israel would respond. It has retaliated for some past attacks by launching airstrikes against Palestinian security targets and sending tanks rolling into Palestinian-ruled areas.
In an initial reprisal, Israeli bulldozers demolished two Palestinian security posts overlooking the Israeli Army position raided by Hamas members armed with grenades and assault rifles. An Israeli military source called the move "a lesson" to Palestinian security forces for failing to prevent the attack.
Hamas said last month it was suspending attacks inside Israel following Arafat’s appeal. A Palestinian security official accused an exiled faction of Hamas of having launched yesterday’s attack to "provoke a collapse of the Palestinian Authority."
The officer and three soldiers killed were Bedouin Arab volunteers in the Israeli Army. Bedouins often serve as trackers and are adept at spotting signs of frontier infiltration. They were protecting a small group of settlers who arrived last August to rebuild a kibbutz.
In a separate development, Israel suspended construction of a mosque near the Catholic Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, a project that has angered the Vatican, government sources said. They said construction of the mosque near the basilica would be put on hold until a new plan was drawn up. A senior government official said a ministerial committee now had been given two weeks to submit an alternative plan but declined to say whether it would be necessary to move the mosque to a new site.
