GAZA CITY, 5 April 2007 — Heavily armed Israeli forces yesterday invaded the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun and killed a Palestinian activist, security sources said. The invasion sparked fears that Israel may at last be making good on warnings of a large-scale offensive in the Gaza Strip to stop what it alleges weapons smuggling by Palestinian militants.
Five tanks, bulldozers and jeeps penetrated 500 meters into farmland near Beit Hanun, sparking sporadic gunfights with militants, but withdrew quickly thereafter. The Islamic Jihad group confirmed that soldiers shot and killed one of their members, Ramez Awad Al-Zaanin. Another man was wounded.
Dr. Moaoya Hassnin, Palestinian Health Ministry official told Arab News that the Israeli Special Forces rolled into camp yesterday afternoon and killed Zaanin, 27. He added that two other Palestinian were arrested during the Israeli invasion, one was injured before arresting him. He also said that Zaanin, a member of Al-Qods Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, was trying to plant an explosive device near the border fence to stop invading tanks. The Israeli soldiers in the area opened intensive fire, killing one and arrested two others.
The Israeli Army at first, prevented Palestinian ambulance from reaching the scene to evacuate the wounded, he said. Al-Qods brigades said that Zaanin was one of their fighters and he was killed in armed clashes with the Israeli forces in Abu Safiyya area east of Beit Hanun.
On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz called for the army to take “decisive action” against militants to halt the firing of homemade rockets into the Jewish state. A day later he toughened his rhetoric, vowing Israel would not allow the Hamas movement to strengthen in Gaza and said the army was preparing for “any scenario.”
Peretz is one of a handful of senior Israeli intelligence and military officials to have warned in recent weeks that Gaza’s militants are seizing on the cease-fire lull to rearm themselves with weapons smuggled from Egypt. In late February, he said “the central issue we are facing ... is the present strengthening and arming of (Islamic fundamentalist movement) Hamas, which is taking advantage of the agreed calm.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Foreign Minister Ziad Abu Amr said yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is not ready for “serious negotiations” with the Arabs to find a peaceful solution in the Middle East. “I think Prime Minister Olmert is not prepared to take part in serious negotiations with the Arab side,” Abu Amr told a press conference here after meeting his Austrian counterpart, Ursula Plassnik in Vienna.
Olmert said this week he was ready to attend an Arab summit to discuss a revived Saudi-drafted peace plan but has been accused by the Arab League of seeking normalized ties with the Palestinian government without making concessions. “Whoever does not accept this initiative is not really interested in peace in the Middle East,” Abu Amr said of the peace initiative, which offers Israel normal relations if it withdraws from all land seized in 1967 and allows for the creation of a Palestinian state and the return of Palestinian refugees.
The five-year-old peace initiative, revived last week by the Arab League, is a “good basis for peace, for a comprehensive peace,” he said. “If Olmert only said he was ready to talk with the Arabs ... to end occupation ... then I think nothing would stand in the way” of a peaceful solution, Abu Amr said.
In Cairo, the head of the Arab League said yesterday that Israeli leaders were sending out mixed messages on whether they were serious about Middle East peace, and Israeli actions on the ground suggested they were not.
Secretary-General Amr Moussa was responding to Olmert’s proposal of a regional peace conference, widely interpreted as a way to avoid taking a clear position on an Arab peace initiative relaunched last week.
The Arab League is in the limelight as the sponsor of the initiative and an Arab League committee is expected to set up a working group, which will contact Israel about it.
But Moussa said: “There are mixed signals on the part of Israeli officials on ways to revive the peace process and these do not make clear the extent of their readiness to deal with the Arab peace initiative.”
