GAZA, 20 February — Sixteen people — 10 Palestinians and six Israelis — were killed in the new spasm of Middle East violence yesterday that plunged the region into deeper crisis.
An Israeli helicopter fired a missile at an office of Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip’s Jabalya refugee camp, killing two activists and wounding several schoolchildren, following airstrikes in Gaza and the West Bank overnight.
In the West Bank’s Jordan Valley, a Palestinian activist blew himself up at the entrance to the Jewish settlement of Mehola, killing himself but causing no other casualties, security sources said. Hospital sources in the town of Khan Younis in southern Gaza said a 14-year-old girl, Mouna, a 37-year-old woman, Miriam Al-Bahaifa and a 19-year-old man, Abdel El-Wahad Al-Najar, were killed when tank shells smashed their homes overnight. Troops also shot dead two Palestinians, at least one of whom was armed, near Jewish settlements in southern Gaza overnight, and killed another two Palestinians during a gunfight early yesterday near Nablus in the West Bank, hospital officials said.
In a late-night incident, six Israelis were killed in an attack on an army checkpoint in the West Bank, Israeli security sources said.
Israeli security sources said the Israelis were ambushed at Ein Ariq, northwest of the Palestinian-ruled city of Ramallah. Four Qassam rockets, fired by Hamas, landed inside Israel in an empty field across the border from the Gaza Strip, Israeli public radio reported yesterday.
Meanwhile, the United States yesterday said the proposal by Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, was “significant and positive.” But, at the same time it said the proposal had to be looked at in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Prince Abdullah had said the Kingdom would consider normalizing relations with Israel and sway the Arab League to do the same if Israel carried out a full withdrawal from the occupied territories.
“Certainly, if Saudi Arabia is willing to reach out to Israel to talk about peace and normalization of relations, then that is a significant and positive step,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
“The reports highlight the importance of not giving up on Arab-Israeli peace and the critical need to do everything we can to help end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he said.
Egypt also “appreciated” Prince Abdullah’s proposal. Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said the plan mooted by Prince Abdullah touched the heart of the Middle East conflict.
“As long as the occupation is the essence of the problem, it is normal that the end of the occupation would signify the end of the problem,” he told reporters.
