OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 6 March — Tit-for-tat violence in the Middle East reached a new high when seven Palestinians and five Israelis were killed yesterday. The Israeli Air Force pounded Palestinian targets across the territories.
An Israeli helicopter fired two rockets on a car in the West Bank town of Ramallah, killing all three persons in the vehicle. They were identified as members of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s elite bodyguard Force 17.
Three home-made Qassam-2 rockets were fired on the southern Israeli town of Sderot, injuring three Israelis.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell called on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to use the “utmost restraint” while dealing with the deteriorating Middle East situation. Israeli F-16 fighter jets and helicopter gunships pounded the last standing police headquarters in Gaza City, as well as security positions in Khan Yunis, in the Gaza Strip, and in the West Bank cities of Tulkarm, Nablus and Bethlehem.
The day started with an attack on a restaurant in Tel Aviv by a Palestinian, who killed three Israelis and wounded up to 20 before being shot dead by police. Then Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian police officer and wounded two others during an incursion into the Palestinian-controlled area of Dura, near Hebron in the West Bank. Soon afterward a Palestinian blew himself up on a bus in Afula, northern Israel, killing one Israeli. At about the same time an Israeli woman settler was shot dead by Palestinians near Bethlehem.
