JERUSALEM, 10 July 2005 — An Israeli security guard patrolling construction works for the West Bank wall yesterday told police he had shot dead a Palestinian teenager in the area, but said he had acted in self-defense.
Fifteen-year-old Mahyoop Assi died late Friday after being shot near the wall construction site in Beit Liqiya some 15 kilometers southwest of Ramallah, police and witnesses said.
“He admitted shooting the youth and was released,” police spokesman Shlomi Sagi told AFP, saying the guard claimed he acted in self-defense after a group of youths began throwing stones.
Police opened an inquiry into the incident and asked the Palestinians to hand over the body for a forensic examination to determine if it was the guard’s bullet which actually killed him, Sagi added.
The latest incident took place exactly a year after the United Nations’ International Court of Justice ruled that parts of the wall which jut into the occupied West Bank is illegal. Israel, however, has ignored the nonbinding ruling and vowed to complete the vast project as soon as possible.
Ongoing construction of the wall has been extremely controversial and attracted hundreds of protests, many of which have resulted in clashes with the Israeli army. At least five other Palestinians have been killed in demonstrations against the wall.
The Israeli Army reported sporadic violence by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip yesterday as preparations for this summer’s pullout from the territory intensified.
A mortar round landed in southern Israel without causing any casualties, while soldiers detained three Palestinians attempting to infiltrate from southern Gaza. Palestinian gunmen also opened fire on three occasions at Israeli targets within the territory, military sources said.
An Israeli commander cited by army radio, meanwhile, revealed that the evacuation of the 8,000 Jewish settlers from the territory and four small enclaves in the northern West Bank would not begin in earnest until Aug. 17. The legislation which set out the compensation on offer for the families who are to be displaced also gave them a 48-hour deadline from the official Aug. 15 start of the operation to accept voluntary relocation, the commander said. Some 1,000 police and soldiers are expected to be mobilized for the first phase, he added.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority rallied hundreds of Gaza policemen yesterday to the task of taking control of Jewish settlements when Israel pulls out of the occupied territory starting next month.
Addressing the policemen, who are training in two camps for their upcoming security duties, Interior Minister Nasser Youssef said: “You have to be ready. You are the defenders of law and order.”
The men are members of a 5,000-strong force that President Mahmoud Abbas created last month to counter any possible looting or militant takeover of the 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza that Israel plans to evacuate. But Palestinian security forces — a dozen of them — have been weakened during a 4-1/2-year uprising against Israel, beset by infighting, accused of corruption and discredited at the expense of militants who now lay down the law on some streets.
“It is true that four years of indiscipline and ineffectiveness in this very importance and respected institution have passed,” Youssef said in rare public remarks.
James Wolfensohn, the Mideast quartet’s “disengagement” envoy, held talks yesterday with the Palestinian civil affairs minister as part of a visit to help coordinate withdrawal from Gaza. At the meeting with Mohammed Dahlan, the two discussed the Gaza pullout and also the huge sum of financial aid pledged to the Palestinian Authority by the Group of Eight industrialized nations.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Wolfensohn said they had discussed the formulation of a plan for using the promised three billion dollar package which was announced Friday by British Prime Minister Tony Blair following the three-day G-8 summit in Scotland.
Wolfensohn, who began a six-day visit to the region, described his meeting with Dahlan as “a very pragmatic and frank discussion” that dealt with all aspects of social and economic matters.
A four-month-old de cease-fire with Israel that Abbas coaxed from militants could help maintain calm for the pullout, due to begin in mid-August. But political analysts believe it will take a great deal more than refresher training to revitalize the forces.
