|
Israel
Reoccupies Beit Hanoun, Abbas Cancels Tour
 |
|
Palestinians
hurls stones at an Israeli tank during the incursion into Beit
Hanoun
|
BEIT
HANOUN, Gaza Strip, May 21 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The
Israeli army reoccupied Beit Hanoun on Wednesday, May 21, forcing
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas to scrap a visit to the
northern Gaza Strip town, as two Palestinians were killed by Israeli
gunfire elsewhere.
Some
20 Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers as well as three
bulldozers moved in the morning back into the area one day after ending
a five-day pullout allegedly intended to halt rocket attacks on nearby
Israeli targets.
The
bulldozers razed more farmland in the area and fresh shooting broke out
after they launched an incursion into the town, Agence France-Presse
(AFP) reported.
Abbas,
also known as Abu Mazen, and Security Minister Mohammad Dahlan were
forced to cancel a visit to the area, where dozens of families have been
made homeless, wide swathes of farmland razed and the electricity, water
and telephone networks left in tatters.
Abbas
and Dahlan, who are spending the week in the Gaza Strip with the other
Palestinian ministers, are under huge pressure to crack down on
resistance groups following five attacks against Israeli targets which
killed 12 people plus the bombers.
In
Beit Hanoun, Israeli soldiers put up razor wire with a sign saying
"Security zone, no entrance" just before Abu Mazen was due to
arrive.
 |
|
"Israel
must cease its escalations (of violence) and invasions of
Palestinian areas because these actions only feed the cycle of
violence,” Abu Mazen
|
"Abu
Mazen has canceled the visit because of the Israeli tank raid in Beit
Hanoun which has blocked the town entrance and the razing of land in
Beit Hanoun this morning," Sufian Abu Zaida, a Palestinian
Authority official, was quoted by Reuters as saying.
The
tanks would have provided a humiliating backdrop for Abu Mazen’s tour,
during which he had planned to talk to residents and inspect damage
after the Israeli raid.
"Israel
must cease its escalations (of violence) and invasions of Palestinian
areas because these actions only feed the cycle of violence and deepen
hatred between the two peoples," Abbas said in a statement.
The
incursion also came one day after U.S. President George W. Bush called
Abu Mazen for the first time to renew his commitment to the
“roadmap” as the only way to achieve peace, and to create the
Palestinian state living in peace with Israel by 2005.
Bush
later in the same day told Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in
another telephone conversation that Abu Mazen is "a reformer who
will work for peace," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
Israel
has placed blame for the bombings squarely on Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat's shoulders, but appears to be giving Abbas a chance to take
concrete steps against armed resistance groups.
The
moderate premier has frequently reiterated his commitment to disarming
the Palestinian Intifada, but is reluctant to take perilous action with
no guarantee Israel will comply with its own obligations in return.
Abbas
asked the U.S. president during the call “to work to secure Israel's
acceptance of the roadmap so as to be able to start implementing it
immediately."
Israel
has so far rejected a freeze on settlements, as laid down in the
U.S.-backed “roadmap”, making more than 15 reservations to it while
the Palestinians accepted it.
First
Trip
Meanwhile,
Bush was considering his first trip to the Middle East as president,
possibly around the time he attends a G-8 summit in France in early
June, the New York Times reported.
Officials
told the Times that Bush could meet Israeli and
Palestinian leaders in Kuwait or Qatar following the meeting.
However,
the paper said U.S. administration officials were divided over whether
Bush should be more involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Two
Deaths
On
the ground, Israeli occupation forces shot dead two Palestinians during
clashes with a group of stone-throwing youths on Wednesday near the West
Bank town of Ramallah, Palestinian security sources said.
Rasmiya
Arar, 35, and Ramel Arar, 20, were shot dead during the clashes in the
village of Qarawat Bani Zeid, near Salfit, between Ramallah and Nablus,
the sources said.
The
deaths raised to 3,260 the number of people killed in the Palestinian
Intifada against Israeli occupation which broke out in September 2000,
including 2,458 Palestinians and 742 Israelis, according to an AFP
count.
Also
on Wednesday, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy was seriously wounded when
Israeli troops opened fire on a group of stone-throwers in the southern
West Bank city of Bethlehem, Palestinian medical sources said.
|
