GAZA, 23 January — A Palestinian wounded at least 30 Israelis in a shooting spree in Jerusalem’s main shopping street yesterday after Israeli troops murdered four Palestinian activists in the West Bank. The United States condemned the Jerusalem shooting and urged Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who has been virtually under house arrest in his Ramallah house for a week, to do more to stop the violence. Palestinian groups, including Hamas and Fatah, called for a "general mobilization" against Israel.
In West Jerusalem, police shot dead the gunman, a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. The group, linked to Fatah, claimed responsibility for the attack near the scene of past carnage in the holy city.
Israel said it would retaliate "appropriately". Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told CNN: "We don’t condone the killing of civilians — Palestinians and Israelis."
In a separate interview with Reuters, Erekat said it was time for US Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni to resume his cease-fire mission and put into motion a truce-to-talks plan proposed by a panel led by former US Sen. George Mitchell. "I believe the American administration must immediately dispatch Gen. Zinni to the region or to begin the implementation of the Mitchell recommendations," Erekat said. Hamas had said earlier that the Israeli raid in Nablus that killed four of its members opened the door to a "fierce war" with Israel. The Hamas statement made clear the group considered its freeze on suicide attacks to be over.
In the Israeli raid in Nablus, Israeli commandos entered a ground-floor apartment in a nine-story residential building where Hamas activists were hiding, Palestinian witnesses said. The Palestinian intelligence chief in Nablus, Talak Dweikat, said it appeared the four were killed while sleeping.
Palestinian medics found three bodies lying on a floor covered with mattresses and the fourth in the shower, in a sitting position. The man in the shower was stripped to his underwear and the shower tiles were smeared with blood. Israeli military said it found large amounts of explosives in the apartment, and nine suspects were arrested.
Shortly afterward, more than 2,000 Hamas supporters rioted outside Palestinian police headquarters in Nablus, demanding freedom for Hamas detainees. Protesters burned three police cars, overturned a fourth and threw stones at officers who responded with live fire, tear gas and stun grenades. One protester was killed.
The Jerusalem shooting was the first major Palestinian attack in the city since a double bombing killed 10 people on the nearby Ben Yehuda pedestrian street on Dec. 1. "A terrorist who came to the city center, at Jaffa Road, opened fire toward passersby. He was shot and killed by police," the Jerusalem police said.
The Jaffa Road shooting came five days after a Palestinian killed six people at a Jewish girl’s bat mitzva, or coming-of-age party, in the northern Israeli city of Hadera. The army said the raid in Nablus was in retaliation for the Hadera attack, carried out by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades which said it was avenging the killing of one of its leaders.
"We call upon all the security forces, the heroes of the intifada (uprising) and our entire people to confront the Zionist invasion," said a statement issued in Gaza City by the Coalition of National and Islamic Forces. It urged the Palestinian people "to join the intifada committees to confront the Zionist invasion and (Israel’s) blockade" of Palestinian towns. It called for a "general mobilization" against the Jewish state.
The coalition also urged Arafat to release the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmed Saadat, who was arrested in connection with his group’s assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister in October.
Meanwhile, the Spanish EU presidency denounced Israeli attacks on Palestinian installations, saying the actions had nothing to do with "security requirements", as is maintained by Israel. "We regret and reject this destruction of infrastructure ... as we have denounced the destruction of (Palestinian) homes," said Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique. Spain currently holds the rotating EU presidency. "From our point of view, these acts have nothing to do with the security needs which the Israeli authorities put forward," he added.
