GAZA, 15 February — Israeli forces reoccupied the central Gaza Strip town of Dir Al-Balakh early yesterday, just hours after pulling out of three towns at the end of a day of occupation amid a flurry of diplomatic activities aimed at defusing tension.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw held talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials yesterday in a stepped-up European drive to end 16 months of bloodshed. Israeli military sources told DPA that Israeli troops were still in Palestinian autonomous areas in the Gaza Strip but on a “much smaller scale”. The Palestinian leadership warned that Israeli aggression would not ensure Israel’s security but harden Palestinian resistance.
The Security Council yesterday expressed dismay at Israel’s heavy bombing of Palestinian targets in Gaza and the injury to United Nations staff there. “Members of the council expressed concern for the continuing violence in the region,” council President Adolfo Aguilar Zinser told reporters.
In a late night development, three Israelis were killed and two others injured by blasts near an Israeli tank in the Gaza Strip, a military source said. A first blast occurred as an “Israeli civilian convoy” passed near a Jewish settlement prompting clashes, the sources said, adding that a second blast took place, killing three and injuring two, when a tank sent as a back-up arrived near the scene.
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo denied news reports that Arafat pulled a gun on a senior security chief, Jibril Al-Rajoub, and slapped him across the face. Officials said the two have since mended fences.
