RAMALLAH, West Bank, 17 October — The shape of a reformed Palestinian Cabinet emerged yesterday as Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, under pressure to reshape his government, held talks with his Fatah faction to finalize details of his new ministerial lineup. “President Arafat is expected to present the new formation of his government (to Fatah) after consultations with all the parties involved,” reporters.
Arafat has been locked in marathon talks with political groups all week. “We expect to see some new faces,” said Habash, whose Fatah group constitutes the main faction within the Palestinian Authority Parliament, which on Sept. 11 forced the Cabinet to step down, accusing Arafat of having failed to go far enough in reforming his heavily criticized government.
Fatah officials who asked not to be named said it was likely that Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razzaq Al-Yehya, appointed in July after an initial reshuffle, would be replaced by senior Fatah member Hani Al-Hassan. They said it was also likely that Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo could be dropped in favor of Hanan Ashrawi, the former Arab League spokeswoman who has criticized the government for dragging its feet on reforms to weed out corruption and incompetence.
Meanwhile, Israeli machine-gun fire wounded 16 Palestinians, including nine children, yesterday in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian security sources said. Two tanks opened fire without provocation after rumbling a few meters up Rafah’s main boulevard, Salahedin Street, which sits on the Gaza Strip’s Israeli-controlled border with Egypt, the sources said. Six people were hit, including a 12-year-old boy Ahmed Abu Al-Shahar and 53-year-old Ahmed Asfour who were both struck in the head and were seriously wounded.
An Israeli human rights group accused Israel’s Army yesterday of unjustifiably shooting to enforce curfews in the West Bank and said troops had killed 15 Palestinians, including 12 aged under 16, in such incidents. The human rights organization B’Tselem said the curfews, clamped on Palestinian-ruled cities in the West Bank following Palestinian bombings, had damaged local education, welfare and health systems, and devastated the economy.
It saved its toughest criticism in a 35-page report called “Lethal Curfew” for incidents in which it said troops had shot at curfew violators even when their lives were not endangered. “Sometimes the soldiers fire without warning. Fifteen children, 12 of them children under age 16, have been killed by soldiers enforcing the curfew. Dozens of others have been wounded,” it said.
“None of those killed endangered the lives of soldiers. Violation of curfew alone is not a justifiable pretext for opening fire, and firing in such circumstances constitutes excessive use of force.” It said this showed “a shameful disregard for Palestinian lives and reflects a trigger-happy attitude among soldiers. It constitutes a flagrant breach of international law”.
