RAMALLAH/CAMP DAVID, Maryland, 9 June — Rebuffing calls from Arab leaders, US President George W. Bush said yesterday he is not prepared to offer a political timetable for the creation of a Palestinian state as six Palestinians and three Israelis were killed early yesterday in a new flare-up of violence.
“We’re not ready to lay down any specific calendar, except for the fact that we have to get started quickly — soon — so we can seize the moment,” Bush said at the conclusion of weekend talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Mubarak told reporters during a joint press conference with Bush at the Camp David retreat that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat be given “a chance” to show he can reform his Palestinian Authority, with an eye on creating a state in the future. “We should give this man a chance.”
Mubarak also called for a total Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian-held territories as well as a halt to all Israeli settlement activity there.
“Israel must end the siege imposed on the Palestinian people ... and halt assassinations and the repeated incursions in the territories under the control of the Palestinian Authority and immediately halt all settlement activities in the occupied territories,” Mubarak said.
With an exasperated edge to his voice, Bush said he was disappointed in Arafat’s leadership and called once more on Arafat to “do everything in his power to stop the violence, to stop the attacks on Israel — I mean everything.”
Meanwhile Israeli tanks rolled into Halhul and Beit Ummar on the main road between Hebron and Bethlehem, with troops going door-to-door in search of suspected Palestinians.
The Israelis summoned local residents to gather in schools and other buildings for interrogation, they said.
In the day-long violence yesterday an Israeli man and his pregnant wife were shot dead by two Palestinians who stormed into the Jewish settlement of Karmei Tzur near the southern West Bank town of Hebron and opened fire, the Israeli Army said.
Another Israeli, who was also critically wounded, died in a hospital and five others were injured in the pre-dawn attack on a cluster of vans north of Hebron by the gunmen armed with assault rifles and grenades.
One of the Palestinians was killed by return fire while the other fled toward the nearby town of Halhul, a spokesman said.
Israeli forces sealed off the area while tanks and troops moved into Halhul and the town of Beit Ummar, going door-to-door and rounding up Palestinians for interrogation.
Five Palestinians were killed in Gaza Strip — three of them in an explosion at Sufa in the southern Gaza Strip and two were shot dead by Israeli troops.
A 19-year-old Palestinian shot by Israeli troops in early June died yesterday at a Hebron hospital, Palestinian sources said.
An Israeli naval shore unit fired on two other Palestinians as they attempted to swim ashore near the northern Gaza Strip settlement of Dugit, the army spokesman said.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority (PA) Cabinet Secretary Ahmed Abdel Rahman said yesterday a new Palestinian Cabinet would be announced in 48 hours.
“The composition of a new government is set to be announced in 48 hours,” Abdel Rahman said.
“It will include new faces,” he said. On May 15, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat promised new elections and a reform of the Palestinian Authority.
