Palestinian Resistance Flares up as Israeli Agression Continues

05/08/2002| IslamWeb

HIGHLIGHTS: 2 Israelis, 2 Palestinians Killed Monday Morning|| The Spate of Attacks Pointed to a Concerted Effort by Several Palestinian Resistance Groups||Shaath Slams Hamas for Attacks on Israeli Civilians||Occupation Army Moves to Expel 3rd Palestinian||U.S., EU & UN Urge Peace Talks After Latest Bloodshed|| STORY: Two Israelis were shot dead in the West Bank early on Monday while driving on a road north of Ramallah.

The pair - a husband and wife - were killed near the Jewish settlement of Shilo, and two others in the car were wounded.

In a separate incident, two Palestinians were killed after exchanging fire with Israeli soldiers in the village of Burka near Nablus.

The deaths came after a day of violence on Sunday, in which at least 13 people died in a wave of attacks by various Palestinian Resistance groups on Israelis.

In the worst single incident on Sunday, at least nine people were killed and more than 40 others injured in a Resistance bomb attack which destroyed a bus in northern Israel.

As well as the bus attack outside the town of Safad, militants also targeted a lorry in Jerusalem, an army jeep in the West Bank and a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, despite the Israeli crackdown in Palestinian areas.

A CONCERTED EFFORT

A spate of attacks pointed to a concerted effort by several Resistance groups in response to the killings of a Hamas leader and 14 other people in an Israeli bombing in Gaza last month most of them children.

Also on Sunday, a Palestinian gunman opened fire on an Israeli lorry near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City.
Police say one Israeli was killed, but the gunman and an Arab bystander also died in the attack.

Four Israeli soldiers were injured, three of them seriously, when their jeep hit a powerful explosive device on a road reserved for Jewish settlers outside the West Bank town of Ramallah.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack.

An armed Palestinian was shot dead as he tried to break into a Jewish settlement on the coast of the Gaza Strip, the army said.
And a Jewish settler was ambushed and wounded near the West Bank town of Tulkarm, along with two soldiers who tried to rescue him.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade said it carried out the attack.

SHAATH SLAMS HAMAS FOR ATTACKING CIVILIANS

Meanwhile, a senior Palestinian minister lashed out at Hamas' tactic of killing Israeli civilians, following a wave of deadly attacks by the group which has rocked Israel.

"Every form of resistance is legitimate except hitting innocent civilians," minister for international cooperation Nabil Shaath told AFP.

ISRAELI OCCUPATION ARMY MOVES TO EXPELL 3RD PALESTININAN

The Israeli occupation army pressed ahead with its plan to expel relatives of Palestinian militants, ordering a third Palestinian banished from the West Bank, while two others set to be deported appealed their case before a military court.

The army's campaign to expel relatives of West Bank militants has gained momentum as a six-week-old reoccupation of West Bank cities has noticeably failed to prevent Resistance groups from launching deadly strikes on Israel.

The army ordered Sunday the expulsion of a Palestinian woman, Intissar Adjuri, 34, from the Askar refugee camp near Nablus, to the heavily guarded Gaza Strip, which is sealed off from Israel by electric fences, legal sources said.

Her brother Gaza Kifah Adjuri, 28, also from Askar, and Abdel Nasser Assidi, 34, from the village of Tel, are appealing their expulsion orders to a military tribunal and rulings are expected in the coming days.

U.S., EU, UN URGE PEACE TALKS AFTER BLOODSHED

The United States, the United Nations and Europe urged the Israelis and Palestinians to abandon bloodshed after the wave of violence which killed 18 people and injured at least 70.

"I'm distressed to hear about the latest bombings in Israel," US President George W. Bush said after a member of the Palestinian Resistance group Hamas blew himself up on an Israeli bus near the northern Israeli town of Safad, killing nine people and leaving 50 wounded.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan issued a strongly worded statement condemning both the Palestinians and Israelis.

"Yet again... a Palestinian terrorist has needlessly and pointlessly destroyed at least 10 lives, including his own, while inflicting injuries on some 50 people and spreading fear and misery among hundreds of friends and relatives," the statement said.

"Every day, it seems, brings fresh news of death, destruction and suffering among innocent civilians, Israeli and Palestinian alike.

"One side resorts to indiscriminate terror, the other responds with retaliation that is equally devastating in effects on ordinary people," the statement said.

"Each feeds the anger and hatred of the other, and then yet more innocent lives are swept away."

In Brussels, the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana condemned what he described as an "atrocious bomb attack," while offering his condolences to the families of those killed.

"Once more I want to stress that these acts of terror, and violent attacks such as the one that took place today in Jerusalem, can only undermine the efforts of dialogue, peace and reconciliation needed."

PHOTO CAPTION

(Top: L) Young supporters of Hamas celebrate in Gaza City Sunday night Aug. 4, 2002, after a bomb blast in a bus at Meron Junction, northern Israel. The flags are Hamas flags and read: No God except God. Muhammad is the messenger of God. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

(Top: R) "Every form of resistance is legitimate except hitting innocent civilians," minister for international cooperation Nabil Shaath told AFP.
(Bottom: L) U.S. President George W. Bush talks prior to playing a round of golf about the new violence in Israel which claimed at least 13 lives, August 4, 2002 Photo by Win Mcnamee/Reuters
- Aug 04 1:58 PM ET

(Bottom: R) Secretary-General of United Nations Kofi Annan speaks to reporters at U.N. headquarters Thursday, Aug. 1, 2002. (AP Photo/David Karp)
- Aug 01 10:38 AM