HEBRON, West Bank, 19 January 2003 — Israeli troops yesterday killed a Palestinian outside Hebron who carried out an attack on a Jewish settlement near the divided West Bank city, the army said. In the Gaza Strip, like the West Bank rocked by a 27-month-old Palestinian uprising, a refugee camp resident was shot dead from a nearby Israeli Army outpost, witnesses said.
The weekend violence coincided with a heightened Israeli military sweep for suspected Palestinian activists amid fears of a surge of hostility ahead of Israel’s general election on Jan. 28. On Friday night, two Palestinians opened fire on a home near the Givat Harsina settlement where a family with five children were staying. The father was killed, and his daughter and two dinner guests were wounded.
An armed settler inside the home killed one of the gunmen, and his partner fled, the army said. Soldiers gave chase. "Early this morning our forces tracked the terrorist down near Givat Harsina and shot him dead," an army spokesman said.
Medical officials in Hebron initially identified the two as Farek and Moaz Abu Sneineh, both from the city’s largest clan. But the latter’s relatives said he telephoned to tell them he was alive, so medical officials have yet to identify the second Palestinian.
The Hamas resistance group claimed responsibility for their "revenge" attack on the settlement. Israeli soldiers guard a handful of small settlements in the heart of the predominantly Palestinian city of Hebron, a flash point for violence in the Palestinian revolt in which 1,785 Palestinians and 695 Israelis have been killed.
In Rafah, a Palestinian refugee camp on Gaza’s tinderbox border with Egypt, witnesses said a 35-year-old man was fatally shot in the back while fixing the radiator on his roof. The gunfire came from a nearby Israeli Army outpost, they said. Two other men were wounded by Israeli gunfire elsewhere in Rafah, witnesses said. The camp is the scene of major Palestinian arms smuggling activity as well as battles between local gunmen and the Israeli garrison there.
The hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s extreme right-wing Likud party leads opinion polls ahead of the election. He has taken a tough stance on the Palestinian uprising and rules out peace talks until violence ends. Analysts attribute Sharon’s appeal to voter jitters over security, especially as a US-led war against Iraq looms.
Sharon’s main rival, Amram Mitzna, the leader of the center-left Labour Party, favors holding negotiations and evacuating settlements regardless of the state of hostilities. The international community regards the settlements as illegal under international law. Israel disputes this. "It is not possible to win out the situation we are now in solely through the use of force," Mitzna told Army Radio yesterday. (Agencies)
