OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 11 March — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon continued pounding Palestinians with missiles and tank shells yesterday but hinted that the days of their leader’s incarceration were over. He said he favored ending a siege on President Yasser Arafat which has confined the Palestinian leader to the West Bank city of Ramallah since mid-December.
Lifting the siege would enable Arafat to attend an Arab League summit in Beirut at the end of the month that is due to debate a Saudi proposal for an Arab-Israeli peace deal.
Sharon said the siege would not be lifted immediately because of a bombing in Jerusalem on Saturday that killed 11 Israelis. “But at the end of the day I believe the conditions will exist in which we can do this,” he said in a speech.
Sharon said Arafat had fulfilled Israel’s terms for lifting the siege by arresting the suspected killers of far-right Cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi last October. “I said once they were arrested I would let him leave,” Sharon said in the speech, broadcast on Israeli television. “Once you achieve your demands you must carry out your commitments,” he added.
Five Palestinians were killed in four separate incidents in the West Bank and Gaza, while Israeli helicopter gunships fired missiles on targets in the Palestinian territories. Two Palestinians died when their car exploded in the village of Jabal Muakkabir at the entrance of East Jerusalem. A Palestinian witness from the nearby West Bank town of Bethlehem said he saw an Israeli helicopter fire on the vehicle.
A 16-year-old was shot dead as he was throwing stones at Israeli troops near Nablus. Another Palestinian was killed when Israeli soldiers opened fire on him at a West Bank roadblock near the northern entrance to Jerusalem. Earlier a Palestinian was killed in the Gaza Strip after wounding two Israelis, Israeli public television reported.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said that the US Middle East envoy would remain in the region to try to convince Israelis and Palestinians to halt the alarming wave of violence. “We have a vision, we have a plan to solve this crisis but it begins with ending the violence,” Powell told CBS’ “Face the Nation” of the revived effort by retired Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni.
