OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 21 October 2003 — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday renewed the threat to “remove” Yasser Arafat, just hours after Israeli warplanes and helicopters killed two fighters and a bystander in airstrikes in Gaza.
Late at night, two missiles were fired from a helicopter at a car in Gaza, killing two Palestinians and wounding over 30.
Sharon said in a policy speech that he remained committed to the US-backed Middle East road map and even saw a real chance for progress toward a peace settlement with the Palestinians in coming months. But he pointed the finger at the Palestinian president as the main stumbling block.
“This man is the biggest obstacle to peace and therefore Israel is determined to bring about his removal from the political arena,” he said in a speech to Parliament, interrupted frequently by heckling from left-wing and Israeli Arab deputies.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat accused the right-wing prime minister of using his speech to “undermine peace”.
“He reiterated his commitment to building walls (in the West Bank) and (Jewish) settlements and to continued use of the most disproportionate force against people who have no navy or air force or army,” he said.
Sharon offered no new initiatives and instead reaffirmed many of his hard-line policies, including a decision by his security Cabinet last month to eventually remove Arafat from power.
Sharon’s speech followed a flurry of Israeli airstrikes around Palestinian-ruled Gaza City yesterday. In addition to those killed, at least 23 people were wounded, medics said.
The attacks, the latest in a cycle of tit-for-tat violence that has stalled the US-backed peace plan, came after gunmen killed three soldiers in an ambush in the West Bank on Sunday.
In the bloodiest of three air raids carried out in five hours, a helicopter-fired missile hit a mini-van stopped at a traffic light in densely populated Gaza City, sending pedestrians fleeing in panic.
Two Hamas fighters, one of them identified as Khaled Al-Masri, a senior member of the group, were burnt to death inside their vehicle.
“We will avenge your blood,” Hamas loudspeakers threatened as supporters, chanting “There is no alternative to bombings”, carried the fighters’ bodies in a funeral march. “The Zionists will soon be sorry when they feel our painful response.”
A 35-year-old man in a nearby car was also killed in the airstrike and nine people were wounded, medics said. Three hours earlier, an Israeli warplane bombed a building next to the home of Islamic Jihad leader Abdallah Al-Shami in Gaza.
Palestinian Premier Ahmed Qorei unveiled plans yesterday to hold general elections in June 2004 but officials and observers warned voting would be impossible without an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza.
“One of the most important questions for our government concerns elections which will take place in June 2004,” Qorei told reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah after a meeting of his emergency Cabinet. He said his government would act to hold presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections.
“We have already held very serious talks with the electoral commission and the parliament now needs to finalize the election law,” the prime minister added.
