RAMALLAH, 22 October 2003 — Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat called on the international community yesterday to halt Israel’s “military madness,” while thousands of mourners buried the victims of a series of airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. “I appeal to the international community, the United Nations and the Quartet to stop this military madness through which they (the Israelis) are looking to destroy our holy land and our people,” Arafat told journalists here.
Arafat was making his first response to five separate airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on Monday which claimed the lives of 10 people and wounded 70 others. Four of the wounded have been declared clinically dead.
The deadliest attack hit late Monday in Nusseirat refugee camp of the central Gaza Strip where seven Palestinians were killed and 40 wounded, 10 of them seriously, according to Palestinian security sources.
Hamas vowed to avenge the attacks and the Israeli military reported that three of the group’s makeshift Qassam rockets were fired yesterday evening from Gaza toward the southern Israeli town of Sderot but without causing casualties. Four mortar shells were also aimed at a Jewish settlement
Thousands of people attended the funerals for the victims in Nusseirat yesterday, bringing the refugee town to a standstill.
“We are warning all the collaborators and we are warning the Israelis. Our highest goal is jihad (holy war),” one Hamas official told the cheering crowd.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei said in a statement that he shared their “pain and anger” while calling for the UN Security Council to adopt “appropriate resolutions to save our people.”
Qorei himself was in Cairo yesterday for talks with Egyptian leaders on the worsening situation in the region.
His visit comes as US Secretary of State Colin Powell was expected in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh for talks with President Hosni Mubarak today. It was not known whether Qorei would also travel to Sharm El-Sheikh. The Gaza strikes have led to splits within Israeli ranks, with one minister in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s coalition Cabinet calling for victims to be compensated and a public apology.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said that the strikes “not only bring added suffering to populations, they also contribute to increasing tensions and putting at risk security in the region.”
Nine Palestinians were wounded, one seriously, when around 40 Israeli army jeeps and armored trucks stormed the West Bank city of Ramallah yesterday evening.
The troops imposed a curfew in the center of the city and surrounded the landmark Abdul Nasser Mosque, according to witnesses. All nine wounded Palestinians suffered gunshot wounds, the sources said.
