OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 28 January 2003 — The Israeli Army yesterday imposed a total closure on the Palestinian territories on the eve of elections, in which hard-line Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is due to emerge the overall winner. Meanwhile, tensions were high in the Gaza Strip after more Palestinian rocket attacks, and as Israel said it could reoccupy the coastal territory as it has done most of the West Bank for the past seven months.
The army shut all borders between Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Sunday evening, as well as key border crossings it controls between the territories and Jordan and Egypt, until tomorrow morning, the day after the elections. Tensions rose sharply over the weekend after homemade rockets were fired over the border into southern Israel, provoking a devastating Israeli raid into the heart of Gaza City, the deepest incursion into the densely-populated metropolis in more than two years of fighting.
Twelve Palestinians were killed and more than 60 injured in Israeli raids. The death toll continued to rise in Gaza even after the army withdrew Sunday, with a six-year-old boy killed by tank fire in Rafah in the south, near the Israeli-controlled border with Egypt, and a 50-year-old killed in his home by a tank shell in Khan Younis, just to the north.
A 17-year-old Palestinian youth was killed yesterday in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip when an explosive device went off as he was following a funeral procession for the previous day’s casualties.
In the West Bank, the army also extended the closure of two Hebron colleges catering to more than 7,000 students which were shut down in reprisal for a series of deadly attacks in the area in past months.
Palestinians accused Sharon of launching the massive raid as a means of boosting his tough image before today’s general elections, which he is tipped to win on a pledge to smash the intifada, or uprising, and not engage in peace talks. And Sharon’s main rival, Amram Mitzna, appeared to be guiding his Labour Party to its worst defeat ever, slipping from 25 seats to 18 or 19, compared to Likud which is set to storm from 19 to around 33 seats in the 120-member Parliament. Tommy Lapid’s secular and centrist Shinui party is set for a spectacular parliamentary breakthrough to become the third party with 16 seats, 10 more than it currently holds.
With Mitzna refusing to join any government led by Sharon, the hawkish premier is looking to Shinui to shore up a rocky future coalition. However, Shinui refuses to join any government with religious or extremist nationalist parties, meaning Sharon will have to jettison smaller far-right allies he has traditionally used to navigate crises stemming from the conflict or the country’s worst ever economic slump.
At talks in Cairo, Palestinian factions from across the political spectrum were poised to issue a joint policy statement after four days of talks, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said. “We have formed a drafting committee to draw up the document (which) will be submitted to delegates for approval and publication at the end of the talks” last evening, the head of the PFLP delegation Maher Taher told AFP.
“The main point is the formation of a unified national command comprising the 12 Palestinian factions,” including the Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups as well as Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s mainstream Fatah movement. Taher said the Palestinian Authority had raised no objection to the unified command, seeing it as a complement rather than a challenge to its leadership.
The European Union said it was seriously concerned at the deteriorating situation in the Middle East after Israel’s military operations in Gaza City. “The EU member states had an in-depth discussion of the Middle East peace process against the background of the further deterioration of the situation on the ground and the upcoming Israeli elections,” said a statement after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. “Grave concern was expressed for yesterday’s extensive Israeli military operations in Gaza,” it said.
The Brussels statement also said EU members continued to support the need for speedy implementation of the “road map” endorsed by all participants in the quartet, which links the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union in seeking a Middle East settlement. The quartet wants to see civil and administrative reforms in place to prepare the Palestinians for statehood under a potential peace deal with Israel. (The Independent)
