GAZA CITY: Leaders of several Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip yesterday vowed to retaliate for anti-Arab violence in the northern Israeli city of Acre.
Abu Abeer, spokesman of Al-Nasser Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), told reporters that the group would respond to “the crimes against our Palestinian brothers” soon.
Clashes between Arabs and Jews erupted in Acre on Wednesday evening after an Arab motorist entered a predominantly Jewish area during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. Yesterday marked the fifth consecutive day of violence with Jews torching an empty Arab house.
Israeli media reported yesterday that police have arrested some 54 people from both communities involved in rioting.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told police to show “zero tolerance” toward rioters. “The scenes from Acre since Yom Kippur and over the past several nights have been very distressing,” Olmert told the weekly Cabinet meeting.
The National Brigades, the military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, promised an appropriate response.
“The Palestinians are one nation be it in Gaza, the West Bank or Israel. We can never accept these attacks on our brothers in Akka (Acre), which is aimed at forcing them to leave their city,” a statement issued by the group said.
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) denounced the Israeli police action of releasing Jewish youths while keeping Arabs in detention as racist. The PLO called for immediate international intervention to protect the Arabs, whom “Israel is treating as “second class citizens.”
