GAZA CITY, 14 March 2004 — Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire early yesterday in the Gaza Strip, in continuing violence that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned stymied the search for peace in the Middle East. The pair were shot dead when they attacked an army position near the Karni crossing point into Israel, a joint statement from two Palestinian militant groups said.
The statement from Ezzedine El-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas resistance movement, and the Abu Rish group, linked to the Fatah faction of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, identified the dead men as Muhammad Suleiman Haboush and Saied Mahmoud Narish, both 20.
Israeli Army sources said troops saw two “suspect silhouettes” in a prohibited area approaching the security fence dividing the two territories and opened fire, hitting them both.
The latest violence followed blunt words from Annan on the deteriorating conditions for finding a peace settlement.
“The situation on the ground has once again been shaken by a wave of violence,” Annan said Friday, criticizing Israeli incursions and house demolitions as well as Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians.
“There has been no discernible progress in peace efforts,” he said. “The lack of any tangible progress toward a peaceful settlement has raised the level of hopelessness and despair among ordinary Palestinians and Israelis.”
Annan hailed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s announced plans for a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in the absence of progress in peace talks, despite fears that the move could play into the hands of Palestinian extremists.
Nevertheless, he added: “Attempts by either side to resolve this drawn-out conflict unilaterally could actually foment more anger and violence.”
His spokesman, Fred Eckhard, told reporters Annan’s Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen would not be attending an upcoming Israeli-Palestinian summit, and that no UN officials had been invited.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei noted Thursday that the summit hinged on the outcome of a summit preparatory meeting today. The meeting comes against a backdrop of US and Egyptian diplomatic efforts. Assistant US Secretary of State for Near East Affairs William Burns, National Security Council No. 2 Stephen Hadley and its Middle East director, Elliott Abrams, arrived in Israel on Thursday to discuss Sharon’s disengagement plan, which includes evacuating 17 of the 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.
Wrapping up meetings with the three senior US envoys on Friday, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Washington was taking a “more positive approach” to the Gaza pullout, but said its implementation was conditional on full US backing and financial perks.
“He (Sharon) told me there will not be any initiative without a US agreement which should not limit itself to ‘a nod’ but must also include a long list of US compensations. I tackled that topic with the envoys,” he said.
Washington has insisted that the disengagement plan be in line with the international drafted peace road map and include measures relating to the West Bank.
The US envoys here also met with Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad and Negotiations Minister Saeb Erekat.
