RAMALLAH: A special Israeli forces unit killed a senior commander of the Islamic Jihad and a university student in the West Bank city of Nablus yesterday. The Palestinians hit back, firing two rockets into southern Israel from Gaza Strip. The violence threatened a shaky truce between Israel and the Palestinians. Also yesterday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy wound up his tour of the Middle East, speaking out strongly in favor of a Palestinian state.
The two Palestinians were killed in an exchange of fire with Israeli forces and Israeli internal intelligence agency, Shin Bet. The Israelis had entered Nablus to arrest several wanted Palestinians.
Palestinian medics at Rafidya Hospital in Nablus said Tariq Abu Ghali from Jenin and Iyad Khanfar, a student at Al-Najah National University, were killed by Israeli gunfire. Dr. Ghassan Hamdan, director of Medical Relief in Nablus, said the two men were not armed.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the two rockets were the first to be fired from the Palestinian territory since a truce between Israel and the Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers went into effect on June 19. One of the rockets struck the courtyard of a house in the town of Sderot, causing some damage, and another struck a field outside town.
A spokesman for Islamic Jihad claimed its fighters had carried out the attack in response to the violence in Nablus.
Hamas blamed Israel for provoking the Palestinians, but said it would adhere to the truce. “It is clear that it was the Israeli occupation that provoked the feelings of the Palestinian people,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said. “Any fire from the Gaza Strip is a gross violation of the understanding reached with Egypt,” Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s spokesman Mark Regev said after the attack, referring to the truce agreement.
On the third day of his Middle East trip, Sarkozy met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank town of Bethlehem. “The security of Israel is nonnegotiable for France, but the creation of a viable, democratic, modern state for the Palestinians is a priority for France,” he said at a news conference with Abbas. “We will use the same strength, the same commitment we used in ensuring Israel’s security,” said Sarkozy, who on Monday had addressed the Israeli Parliament.
“I told our Israeli friends the injustice done to the Jewish people can’t be resolved by creating conditions of injustice for the Palestinian people,” Sarkozy said.
He reiterated his call for Israel to freeze Jewish settlement activity in the West Bank.
— With input from agencies
