GAZA CITY, 15 December 2005 — Four Palestinians were killed when Israel launched an airstrike in the Gaza Strip yesterday, in the latest of a series of military actions since last week.
The missile attack occurred against a backdrop of clashes between rival groups of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party ahead of parliamentary elections in January.
The air raid added to a spiral of violence that has diminished chances of resuming peace efforts, on hold as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon prepares to campaign for re-election in a March poll.
Israel said it had delayed implementation of a US-brokered deal to allow bus convoys between Gaza and the West Bank from today until next week because of security concerns. The United States has proposed European monitoring of the deal.
Sharon, who quit his rightist Likud party last month to form a new centrist movement, wants to counter rightist opponents’ accusations that Israel’s Gaza pullout in September was a reward to militants and showed he was soft on the Palestinians.
Witnesses said an Israeli aircraft fired on a car near the Karni crossing between Gaza and Israel, killing three members of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) and one from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group in Fatah.
PRC spokesman Abu Abir vowed revenge for the attack, saying Israelis in the border town of Sderot should “flee their homes because soon our rockets will target them.”
Al-Aqsa said it fired three rockets into Israel, but there were no casualties or damage. Israel launched a new campaign of airstrikes after an Islamic Jihad bomber killed five Israelis at a shopping mall on Dec. 5.
In the third straight day of internal fighting in Gaza, dozens of Al-Aqsa gunmen poured into Fatah’s Gaza headquarters to demand jobs, and ended up exchanging fire with armed rivals.
The violence highlighted escalating divisions in Fatah before the Palestinian elections in January in which the Hamas group is expected to mount a serious challenge to Fatah’s traditional dominance in Parliament.
A flare-up of election related violence in Gaza on Tuesday prompted Palestinian election officials to suspend operations, but Gaza offices reopened yesterday after security forces were deployed outside to protect them.
Meanwhile, Israel said yesterday it had authorized the construction of hundreds of new apartments in five West Bank settlements, again violating a key clause of an international peace plan which Sharon is highlighting as a central element in his election campaign.
Holocaust a ‘Myth’ Used to Create Israel: Ahmadinejad
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday the Nazi Holocaust was a “myth” used to create Israel. His comments drew a barrage of condemnations from Israel, the United States and Europe, which warned he is hurting Iran’s position in crucial nuclear negotiations.
Touring southeast Iran, Ahmadinejad said that if Europeans insist the Holocaust happened, then they are responsible and should pay the price.
“Today, they have created a myth in the name of Holocaust and consider it to be above God, religion and the prophets,” Ahmadinejad told thousands of people in the southeastern city of Zahedan. “If you committed this big crime, then why should the oppressed Palestinian nation pay the price?”
“This is our proposal: If you committed the crime, then give a part of your own land in Europe, the United States, Canada or Alaska to them so that the Jews can establish their country,” he said.
— With input from agencies
