Israel 'exploits US attacks' to attack Jenin, kills 10 Palestinians

Agencies

Israel said it was launching strikes against “terrorist operations” and urged Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat “to renounce terrorism following the horrific attacks in the US.”

Nine people were killed and nearly 50 wounded in the West Bank during a second night of incursions in and around the autonomous Palestinian town of Jenin in a move the occupation army said targeted “bases for terrorist activity.”

But a top Arafat aide, Nabil Abu Rudeina, described the Jenin raids as “a new massacre against Palestinians.”

Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat accused Israel of exploiting the international crisis to escalate strikes against Palestinians.

“Unfortunately, at a time when the Palestinian people and the Palestinian leadership are denouncing the terrorist acts that took place ... the Israeli government is using the circumstances to invade Jenin,” Erekat said.

A 10th Palestinian was killed and two wounded when Israeli occupation troops opened fire on their taxi near Qurara town in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian security sources.

Tanks rolled into Jenin under cover of darkness and opened fire, destroying a Palestinian police post during exchanges of gunfire.

“Several suspects involved in hostile terrorist activity against Israeli targets were arrested,” an occupation army spokesman said in a statement.

“During the arrests, fire was opened against the IDF (army) force. Several terrorists were injured in the crossfire when they tried to harm our forces.”

Palestinian sources said three people were found dead in a Jenin refugee camp and nearly 50 people wounded. No Israeli casualties were reported.

The flow of blood continued to obstruct efforts to secure truce talks between Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.

After the savage Israeli attack on Jenin, Peres urged Arafat to “leave the world of terrorism”, and linked an end to Palestinian hostilities to a resumption of talks.

The Jordanian press on Wednesday unanimously warned Israel against using the terror attacks that hit the United States a day earlier as a cover to accuse Arabs and Muslims of terrorism.

“Immediately after the attacks, Israeli leaders and the Zionist lobby in the United States issued statements giving the West the impression that Arabs and Muslims were behind these operations,” Al Arab Al Yawm daily said.

“Arab leaders must oppose these Zionist bids, which are aimed at creating a wave of hatred among the American people against the Arabs, Palestinians and Islam,” the independent newspaper said in an editorial.

No link has been established between the US devastaton with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Arafat has condemned the attacks as a “crime against humanity.”

He also postponed a scheduled landmark trip to Syria “because of these circumstances,” Abu Rudeina said.

Peres said: “Yasser Arafat now has an opportunity to turn the page and definitively leave the world of terrorism; this is the real test for him.

“If the Palestinians remain within the world of terrorism, the world will be against them.

“If the Palestinians leave the world of terrorism, we can resume our negotiations.”

But Abu Rudeina blamed Israel for the latest escalation of tension.

“The Israeli government is responsible for this escalation and is continuing its aggression against the Palestinian people, especially in these circumstances,” he told AFP, referring to the timing of the incursions just hours after the attacks in the United States.

“They carried out a new massacre against Palestinians which will negatively affect the whole situation. We want the Israeli government to stop the dangerous escalation.”

Israeli tanks withdrew from Jenin town, but the blockade of the area was maintained preventing some parents of the three who died in the refugee camp from reaching the funerals.

Held under the gaze of the occupation army, the ceremonies were small and subdued, without the cries for revenge and bursts of rifle fire which normally accompany such funerals, reporters said.

Jenin was targeted after an Israeli Arab suicide bomber, who killed four people in a deadly attack on Sunday, was said to have been trained there by a cell of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas.

At least 11 suicide attacks in the past year have been linked to Jenin.

Following the withdrawal from Jenin, the tanks entered nearby Tammun where a member of the Palestinian security services was reported killed, and 20 Palestinians wounded.

Three Palestinians were killed in the village of Arraba, and two were killed at Tubas in the same area.

The army spokesman said Israel “will act and continue to act in order to prevent terrorist operations and to defend Israeli citizens and soldiers.”

“They (the Israelis) are taking advantage (of the attacks in the United States). If this snowballs, we might see in the next few days things heating up in a very ugly way,” warned Palestinian analyst Khalil Shikaki.

Settler killed

Late Wednesday, an Israeli settler woman died after she was fatally wounded in an attack by Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank, occupation officials said.

The woman, a resident of the Alfei Menashe Jewish settlement just inside the West Bank, was hit in the head and evacuated to hospital in the Israeli town of Kfaer Saba, but later died.

Military sources said that an Israeli man was also shot and slightly wounded in a similar attack near the West Bank town of Ramallah, just north of Jerusalem.