HEBRON, West Bank, 31 August — The Israeli Army moved several hundred meters into autonomous Palestinian territory in the West Bank town of Hebron yesterday, following the funeral for a Palestinian officer killed in clashes a day earlier, as three Palestinians were killed in a fresh outburst of violence. The clashes deflated hopes for calm after the Israeli withdrawal from the autonomous Palestinian West Bank town of Beit Jala under international pressure.
A member of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s elite Force 17 guards was killed and three other people wounded, including one seriously, by Israeli tank fire on a position in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday night, Palestinian security sources said. The dead Force 17 member was identified as Sami Barud.
The latest unrest came amid fears the northern Israeli front would re-open, as the army said it was on high alert for a major offensive by Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement.
Hezbollah fired four times on Israeli warplanes overflying Lebanese air space yesterday — an Israeli practice the United Nations slams as a violation of the UN-marked border between the two countries.
The Israeli interior minister told Arab News that the assassination of Abu Ali Mustafa, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, last Monday was just a beginning. However, he denied any plan to assassinate President Arafat. He said Israel had not yet mobilized all its resources in its fight against Palestinians.
In Gaza, Israeli soldiers threatened to open fire on a convoy which included the head of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency, Peter Hansen, one of his aides said.
Chris Nordhal, the organization’s Gaza Strip chief, told AFP that Israeli soldiers had threatened to shoot on the members of the official from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) convoy, when they approached an Israeli roadblock between Rafah and Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
“There was a tank blocking the street, and we got down to talk to the soldiers, but when we arrived within 30 meters from them, they started shouting and threatened to open fire”, Nordhal said.
The official from UNRWA added the convoy was forced to turn around and use side roads to get to Rafah on the Egyptian border. Danish Foreign Minister Mogens Lykketfot severely criticized the Israeli military for threatening to fire on the Danish head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. “I am expecting the UN to protest to Israel and do something. It has all our support.”
Meanwhile, violence continued unabated in the occupied territories, as two Palestinians were killed in separate incidents early in the day.
A Palestinian civilian was killed by a live bullet in the chest when clashes between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli soldiers erupted east of the West Bank town of Tulkarem, hospital sources said. The same sources later reported that a Palestinian doctor was killed when fighting broke out between Israeli forces and Palestinians in the West Bank town of Hebron. The clashes also left 23 people injured.
