NABLUS, West Bank, 23 February 2003 — Israeli troops killed two Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus yesterday, while Palestinian officials called for a one-year truce in the conflict with Israel.
Witnesses and hospital officials said soldiers fired at Palestinians, killing two men, at least one a bystander.
The deaths brought to 33 the number of Palestinians killed in violence in the past week, most in an offensive in the Gaza Strip that Israel said targeted Hamas.
Senior Palestinian officials, meanwhile, said the Palestinian leadership backed an Egyptian-proposed one-year cease-fire in the 28-month-old uprising for statehood.
Palestinian Parliament Speaker Ahmed Korei told Voice of Palestine radio: “All factions should comply with the...truce for the good of the Palestinian people.”
In the Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam yesterday, Mahmoud Abbas, secretary-general of the PLO’s Executive Committee, referred to a truce proposed by Egypt last month during talks in Cairo with main Palestinian nationalist and Islamist factions.
“We do not expect the Israeli government will stop its escalation against our people, even if the Palestinian factions stopped their actions, but in that case the whole world will see for itself who is responsible for escalating the conflict.
“Therefore the accusations will be directed at Israel rather than the Palestinians,” the newspaper quoted Abbas as saying. “This is why we (the Palestinian leadership) agreed to freeze military activities for one year.”
Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, has been cited as a potential successor to Arafat. He said he expected the Cairo talks would resume, possibly next week, and hoped the proposal would eventually win the backing of additional factions.
President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction has said it accepted the plan to end armed attacks, but key groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and an armed offshoot of Fatah rejected it.
They demanded Israel stop killing Palestinians before they sign any deal to end armed attacks in the uprising.
The Israeli Army entered Nablus’ historic old city, where about 25,000 Palestinians live.
Residents said Israeli soldiers arrested about half a dozen men and damaged at last 50 houses and stores. They said during the raid, soldiers landed on rooftops and blew up parts of buildings where they suspected weapons were held.
“It’s clear that what happened in the old town is an unacceptable aggression. It comes in a positive atmosphere for (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon when the world is paying attention to the Iraqi crisis,” Governor Mahmoud Aloul said.
Washington wants to calm Israeli-Palestinian violence as it masses forces in the Gulf for any war on Iraq, which it accuses of developing weapons of mass destruction.
David Baker, an official in Sharon’s office, said forces were in Nablus to uncover “terror cells and explosive labs”.
The Israeli Army stepped up its raids into Gaza after the tank attack by Hamas, which has carried out bombings inside Israel since the uprising erupted in September 2000.
