GAZA CITY, 5 October — The Israeli Army’s occupation of a small strip of Palestinian land in the northern Gaza Strip continued yesterday into a second day, with four bulldozers razing orchards and fields, witnesses said. The bulldozers tore up land on the edge of Atatra village under protection of one tank, said 17-year-old Atia Abu Khalma, a village resident. At dusk, a second tank entered a field around 500 meters from Khalma’s house, separated only by a field with rows of greenhouses. Village residents said they knew of three families whose homes were in the incursion zone and were forced to flee.
Two Israeli tanks and some 10 armored vehicles also made an incursion into Palestinian territory near Jaljilya village in the northern West Bank where two Israeli occupiers have taken five Palestinians hostage, Palestinian witnesses told AFP late last night. Exchanges of gunfire were heard around the house with the Palestinian family inside, including three children, said the witnesses.
The tanks and armored vehicles penetrated some three kilometers into a sector under complete control of the Palestinian authority, they said.
The Middle East was, however, plunged into greater chaos yesterday as a Palestinian gunman disguised as an Israeli soldier shot dead three Israelis at a bus station, just as a plane packed with Israelis blew up in midair en route for Russia.
Peres met with chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat in west Jerusalem yesterday, a day after Israel canceled a joint security meeting, saying the Palestinians were not respecting the cease-fire. The meeting was marked by mutual recriminations and ended within one hour at a West Jerusalem hotel, Erekat told AFP.
The violence has continued unabated since the truce accord pushed through by the United States, which is anxious to enlist Arab countries in its efforts to track down Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan. A Palestinian man was also killed and another was wounded by shots from Israeli soldiers in the flash point West Bank town of Hebron, where thousands of Israelis had gathered to celebrate the Jewish festival of Sukkot.
And in Bethlehem, Arafat’s Fatah movement accused Israel of being behind an explosion that seriously injured 22-year-old Remi Al-Kamel, a close associate of Ataf Abayat, accused by Israel of being behind the murder of an Israeli occupiers in the West Bank area two weeks ago.
In another development, the Israeli Peace Now organization said yesterday that an aerial survey it conducted has revealed that Israel set up at least 10 new settlements in the West Bank between June and September 2001.
All the new sites have been set up close to existing settlements, the organization said, and a total of 25 new settlements have been built since Ariel Sharon became Israeli premier in February.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were a major sticking point before the Israeli-Palestinian peace process broke down.
