GAZA CITY, 21 October 2004 — Two Palestinian men including an armed fighter were killed by Israeli fire in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday, while a would-be female bomber was arrested in the West Bank, sources on both sides said.
The Islamic Jihad group said one of its fighters had been shot dead by troops as he and other gunmen prepared to attack an army position near Rafah on the Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt.
Jihad Hassanein, 21, was killed while his fellow fighters managed to escape, the group said.
Israeli military sources said soldiers had “opened fire yesterday at dawn at three suspects who were approaching their position in a restricted area near Rafah — probably to plant an explosive device.”
“The soldiers apparently hit two of the suspects while the third one fled,” they added.
Also in Rafah, Palestinian man Ahmed Breika, 29, was killed inside his home by a volley of automatic fire from an Israeli tank, medics said.
Meanwhile in the southern West Bank, Israeli troops arrested a 29-year-old Palestinian woman who was planning to carry out an attack in Israel, Israeli public radio said.
The woman’s husband and brother were killed by the army in April 2003. Both were fighters with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.
Ahlam Jawarish was arrested at her father’s home near Beit Jala, not far from Bethlehem, Palestinian security sources said.
Twelve journalists have also been killed in the four-year-old intifada in Israel and the Palestinian territories, a report by the International Press Institute said on Tuesday.
The report said there were 562 press freedom violations during the first four years of the Palestinian uprising, with Israelis responsible for most of the violations.
Journalists of Palestinian origin were more likely to be victimized in the attacks.
Ten of the 12 journalists killed were Palestinians, and the other two were Italian and British. Israelis were blamed for nine of the deaths, and Palestinian paramilitaries killed two Palestinian journalists.
The remaining killing was disputed, and no one has been punished for any of the killings.
In another development, Israeli military authorities have launched a fierce counter-attack to calls by right-wing rabbis who have urged soldiers to disobey any orders to uproot settlers from the Gaza Strip.
Religious leaders such as the former chief rabbi Avraham Shapira have been urging members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) not to take part in the “sinful” transfer of Jews from the territory, as planned for next year by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
While the disengagement plan has led to deep divisions within the country, the defense establishment is determined to ensure that the IDF is not dragged into the debate and question orders from their superiors.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sought to nail down support for the Gaza pullout plan yesterday ahead of a crunch vote in Parliament as one of his top ministers held talks with the religious leader of the main ultra-Orthodox party.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz met with Rabbi Oviada Yossef, the leader of the Shas party, in a bid to convince him that the pullout plan, which also envisages a strengthening of control over larger West Bank settlement blocs, is vital to the security of the Jewish state.
A top US official said he had “no illusions” on the chances of a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“A two-state solution is both in the interest of Palestinians and Israelis... On that issue too, I have no illusions,” Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns said after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo.
Burns acknowledged that reviving trust on both sides would be an uphill struggle with talks frozen for more than a year.
“I understand how difficult it’s going to be to revive hope and faith in the roadmap,” he added, in reference to a plan which was signed by both sides last year and is targets the creation of a Palestinians state by 2005.
