Palestinians Vow Revenge After Six Killed in Gaza
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
12/31/01
JABALYA, Gaza Strip (news - web sites) (Reuters) - Israel's killing of six
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip drew threats of revenge on Monday from militants
defying President Yasser Arafat's (news - web sites) call to halt attacks on
Israelis.
The six men were killed in confrontations Sunday.
``We will pursue the attacks and painful blows against the Zionist enemy
occupying our land,'' activists of the Popular Resistance Committee chanted at
the funeral of one of its leaders who was among the six killed.
The committee, which includes members of Arafat's Fatah (news - web sites) and
the militant Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations, said Ismael Abu al-Qumsan,
its leader in the northern Gaza Strip, and two other gunmen were killed in a
shootout with Israeli soldiers.
The army said its forces killed another three Palestinians in a separate
incident in Gaza Sunday. An army spokesman called the men ``terrorists'' and
said they were shot as they approached a military vehicle at twilight.
He said soldiers found knives on their bodies. Palestinians had no information
on their identity.
The violence broke a two-week lull that began after Arafat, under intense
international pressure to rein in groups behind suicide bombings in Israel,
called for a cease-fire and his security forces began rounding up dozens of
militants as Israel has demanded.
ARAFAT SAYS PALESTINIANS WON'T BE HUMILITATED
Arafat told supporters marking Fatah's 37th anniversary in the West Bank city of
Ramallah Monday that his people would not bow to Israeli attempts ``to humiliate
them'' by besieging them in their cities.
He has been confined to Ramallah since Israel launched a military offensive
after a wave of suicide attacks.
``One day a child, a little boy or little girl, will place a flag of Palestine
on the churches and mosques of Jerusalem,'' an emotional Arafat told a crowd of
thousands.
Waving olive branches and Palestinian flags, church leaders and hundreds of
protesters marched toward an Israeli checkpoint at the entrance to Bethlehem,
where Israel prevented Arafat, who is a Muslim, from making his annual Christmas
pilgrimage.
Blocked from going toward Jerusalem by a line of Israeli troops, the crowd said
prayers before returning to Bethlehem. ''The message is that peace and justice
are not impossible. It is a matter of ending the occupation,'' said Michel
Sabbah, the first Palestinian Latin Patriarch for the Holy Land, before setting
off for Jerusalem in his car.
PERES UPBEAT
Palestinian officials have said U.S. Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni should now
return to the region to resume a mission he broke off in mid-December after a
surge in violence.
The Israeli army said Sunday the number of attacks on Israelis had dropped from
18 a day to 11 in the two weeks since Arafat's cease-fire appeal in a speech to
the Palestinian people.
``Some of the things we demanded, (Arafat) did,'' Israeli Foreign Minister
Shimon Peres said Monday.
``We said he should say in Arabic in his voice to stop the terror, to stop the
terror everywhere... after that we told him to reduce the incitement. There is a
reduction of incitement,'' Peres told Israel Radio.
``After that we told them to stop the mortar fire. They stopped the mortar
fire... they did some things in the right direction but not conclusively,'' he
said, referring to mortar bomb attacks against Jewish settlements in the Gaza
Strip.
Speaking after a breakfast meeting with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web
sites), the dovish Peres described his ongoing talks with Ahmed Korei, the
Palestinian parliament speaker also known as Abu Ala, as ``enriched'' cease-fire
negotiations.
Sharon has insisted that Israel will not hold peace talks with the Palestinians
until a 16-month-old uprising against Israeli occupation ended.
But Israeli media reports and Palestinian officials said Peres and Korei had
raised ideas envisaging Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state on 42 percent
of the land in the West Bank and Gaza as an interim step toward a final peace
deal.
OFFER TO ISRAELI PRESIDENT
In another sign of possible fence-mending, Israeli President Moshe Katzav
confirmed an Israel Radio report that he was approached by a former Arab member
of Israel's parliament about the possibility of addressing the Palestinian
legislature.
The report said the plan called for Katzav to offer a year-long cease-fire in
the speech.
Asked about the proposal, Katzav told reporters: ``An interesting proposition
has been raised, which I did not reject... I am willing to go to the ends of the
earth to help move the peace process forward and achieve a truce.''
There was no immediate Palestinian or Israeli government comment on the reported
initiative. Katzav, who holds a largely ceremonial post, said his final response
would depend on the position of the government and Sharon.
At least 799 Palestinians and 234 Israelis have been killed since the uprising
began after peace talks stalled.