GAZA CITY, 8 June 2005 — A fresh wave of violence killed at least five Palestinians and a Chinese worker yesterday and threatened a four-month cease-fire between Palestinians and Israel. While the two sides said they would continue to observe the truce, the fighting raised already heightened tensions and threatened nascent efforts to coordinate Israel’s upcoming withdrawal from the Gaza Strip with the Palestinians.
“The situation is deteriorating. The whole cease-fire may collapse,” said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, calling for international intervention.
Three Palestinians, including a district leader of Islamic Jihad, were gunned down during Israeli operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
A Chinese and a Palestinian worker died in a subsequent Palestinian revenge attack on a Jewish settlement in the southern Gaza Strip. Separately, a Palestinian was killed before dawn by Israeli troops while crossing the Rafah border.
The Palestinian leadership accused Israel of jeopardizing the relative calm by gunning down the Jihad chief, while Israeli officials warned they would decide “when and how to respond” to the Palestinian reprisals.
Mraweh Khaled Kamil, a chief of Islamic Jihad’s armed wing in the Jenin area, was killed during the Israeli operation in the northern West Bank town of Qabatiya as he hunkered down with others.
A 23-year-old civilian was also killed and nine other Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were injured. “The truce is in peril and this killing will not go unpunished. Our patience is running out,” said Khader Adnan, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, after Kamil was pronounced dead.
Within hours the faction took its revenge. It claimed a blast at greenhouses in the Jewish settlement of Ganei Tal, which the military said killed a Chinese and a Palestinian worker and wounded six other Palestinians.
Hamas claimed the attack to “answer the Israelis trying to enter Al-Aqsa” - referring to Israelis who on Monday toured Jerusalem’s disputed mosque compound.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei blamed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for the latest bout of violence. This “shows the policy of targeted killings has resumed and that is a threat to the current calm and Palestinian efforts to preserve it,” he said.
Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who began a visit to the region, said his government will have no dealings with the leadership of Hamas, hours after acknowledging in a radio interview that British diplomats recently met with members of the group.
Straw, beginning a two-day regional visit by meeting Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, condemned the Palestinian rocket attack. He said such violence “illustrates the wanton, random terror which Hamas and other similar organizations are ready to practice” to undermine peace efforts and the government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
“Our policy is clear,” Straw told reporters at the start of the meeting. “We will have no dealings with the leadership of Hamas or other such organizations unless and until they wholly renounce violence and they renounce their charter calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.”
Earlier, Straw said in a radio interview that British diplomats recently met with two mayors in the West Bank and Gaza who were elected to represent Hamas.
— Additional input from agencies
