A Resistance Attack on an Internationally Illegal Settlement in Gaza Strip Thwarted By Israeli Occupation Troops

07/07/2002| IslamWeb

UPDATED|| HIGHLIGHTS: Two Attackers Surrender- One Wounded||Sharon Sets Limits on Peres Meetings With New Palestinian Ministers||Egyptian Intelligence Chief Holds Meetings in Israel||French Foreign Minister Calls For Creation of a Democratic Palestinian State|| Cherie Blair to Host Reception to Aid Israel's So-called 'Terror Victims'|| STORY: Occupation soldiers captured two armed Palestinians in police uniforms Sunday, wounding one of them, as they tried to infiltrate Israel to carry out a Resistance attack, sources said. (Read photo caption)

The infiltrators were on their way to attack the internationally illegal settlement of Netiv Ha'asara in the Gaza Strip.
Initially the occupation army thought two other Palestinians had fled, but searches of the north Gaza area turned up no additional attackers, Israeli media reports said.

The hour-long confrontation started early Sunday morning, when occupation soldiers fired several tank shells at the Palestinians after spotting a hole in the security fence of the internationally illegal north Gaza settlement of Elei Sinai.

Elei Sinai, in the north of the Gaza Strip, is a frequent target of attack. In October two Israeli settlers, were killed by Palestinians who infiltrated the illegal settlement.

SHARON SETS LIMITS ON PERES MEETINGS WITH PALESTINIAN MINISTERS

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon granted Foreign Minister Shimon Peres permission to meet with newly elected Palestinian Authority officers Abdel-Razzak al-Yahya and Salem Fayeed.

However, Sharon instructed Peres that the discussions will not be as open as Peres may have liked, an official said Sunday.
Sharon announced during the cabinet briefing today that Peres may only discuss economic and military issues with the PA staff.

MK Yitzhak Levy expressed concern about Peres' meetings. Sharon assured Levy that all diplomatic issues must be brought to the government.

Peres told the Labor Party's convention last week that diplomatic contacts should begin with Palestinian Authority officials who can help the fight against terror.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Sharon would permit Peres to contact al-Yahya and Fayeed, who PA Chairman Yasser Arafat appointed to implement reforms.

EGYPT'S INTELLIGENCE CHIEF HOLDS TALKS IN ISRAEL

Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman met with Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and was to speak later Sunday with Sharon and Arafat, part of Arab efforts to push Palestinian Authority reforms.

Israeli occupation army Radio quoted Ben-Eliezer as telling the envoy Arafat "must change a policy of terror" before Israel could take seriously any reforms he pursues in the Palestinian Authority.

Israeli officials had expected Suleiman to be accompanied by Osmama el-Baz, a senior adviser to President Hosni Mubarak, but an Egyptian official said Baz had not gone to Israel.

FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER CALLS FOR CREATION OF A DEMOCRATIC PALESTINIAN STATE

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin called on the Palestinians and Israelis to distance themselves from violence and focus on a political solution and the creation of a "democratic" Palestinian state.

Following talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad and Foreign Minister Farouk Shara on Saturday, de Villepin also called for "self-restraint" along the Lebanese border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, where Lebanese Hizbullah fighters ,have frequently attacked Israeli occupation outposts.

He also called on Israel to stop the construction of Jewish settlements on the West Bank and end its occupation of the Palestinian territories in order to assist the creation of a "viable, sovereign and democratic Palestinian state."

The official Syrian Arab News Agency quoted Assad as telling the French minister that the United States must "preserve" its credibility in sponsoring the Middle East peace process.

The agency did not give the context of Bashar's remark, but Syria has been critical of the June 21 Mideast policy speech by US President George W. Bush in which he called on Palestinians to get rid of Yasser Arafat and promised support for a Palestinian state after the election of a leadership "not compromised by terror."

Assad, according to the agency, also stressed in his meeting with de Villepin the importance of a European role in the Mideast peace process.

Shara told reporters Bush's vision was "full of countless negative points, although there were some positive ones." He said the positive points were "scattered and are required to be reformulated to be in harmony with international legality resolutions.

Later Saturday, De Villepin arrived in the Jordanian capital Amman. He has already visited Lebanon

CHERIE BLAIR TO HOST RECEPTION TO AID ISRAEL'S SO-CALLED 'TERROR VICTIMS

Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, is to host a reception at Downing Street for the One Family Organization, which supports Israeli victims of so called 'terrorism' and their families. The decision is seen as an attempt to atone for what Israel and pro-Zionist British media in London call controversial comments she made last month that appeared to justify so-called 'Palestinian terrorism'-Resistance.

In remarks at a fundraiser for the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians, she said that Palestinian Resistance bombers "feel they have got no hope but to blow themselves up." But a spokesman at Downing Street denied there was any link between the remark and the decision to host the reception.

The spokesman said Blair hosts "about one charity reception here every week for all sorts of causes." No date has been set for the reception, but it is likely to be held next year.

PHOTO CAPTION

(Top) Jewish settlements on Arab land in the West Bank and Gaza -- housing about 200,000 people and considered illegal by the international community -- lie at the heart of the Middle East crisis and a 21-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
(Bottom) French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin talks during a news conference after his meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at his office in the West Bank town of Ramallah Tuesday June 25, 2002. In Damascus, de Villepin called on the Palestinians and Israelis to distance themselves from violence and focus on a political solution and the creation of a "democratic" Palestinian state. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasse