GAZA CITY, 5 January 2003 — Three Israeli bulldozers backed by a tank entered the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah yesterday and demolished three houses, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.
Palestinian witnesses said armored military bulldozers knocked down three large houses in the Rafah refugee camp, near the Israeli-controlled border with Egypt.
They said soldiers fired into the air to disperse a group of international protesters who tried to prevent the troops from entering the outskirts of the camp. There were no reports of casualties.
The United States, Israel’s guardian ally, on Friday joined a chorus of international criticism at Israel’s policy of home demolitions which have been denounced as “collective punishment” by Palestinians and human rights groups.
In another development, five Israeli soldiers and a Palestinian were wounded yesterday morning in a firefight that followed an incursion by Israeli forces into Jenin, security sources from both sides said.
A dozen armored vehicles and jeeps entered the northern West Bank town and headed for a large building from the top of which Israeli soldiers began surveying the surrounding territory.
Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli forces arrested a member of the Islamic Jihad in Bethlehem and a Palestinian man in Nablus, the army said. There were also two incidents in the southern Gaza Strip that left no casualties. In one, light arms fire was directed at an Israeli Army position in the Gush Katif Jewish settlement bloc, while an anti-tank rocket was fired at machinery from a sappers unit near the border with Egypt.
In Cairo, US senator, Arlen Specter, told reporters after a meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher Friday night that Yasser Arafat should step down as Palestinian leader or become a figurehead only.
“Now with respect to the violence, I do not believe that it is realistic to have Chairman Arafat in control of the Palestinian Authority.
“It is my hope that he would step aside. There have been proposals to have a reformed government, maybe make him the president but without power — a titular head — and the power being in the prime minister.
“I remain optimistic that there can be peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Two things have to happen: there has to be an end to bombings and there has to be honesty in the Palestinian Authority,” he added.
Specter arrived here Friday after a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories. He met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the morning yesterday.
He said he discussed with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon the issue of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. “That is one of the requirements that President Bush articulated in his June speech. That has been one of the major stumbling blocks,” he said. (Agencies)
