BitBender
02-07-2002, 11:34 PM
Israel Launches Air Strike; Bush, Sharon to Meet
February 07, 2002 05:44 PM ET (http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml;jsessionid=DR2Z4DLDLXX5WCRBAEZSFEYKEEATIIWD?type=worldne ws&StoryID=579728)
By Atef Saad
NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) - Israel destroyed a Palestinian security building in an air strike on Thursday as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon prepared to seek more U.S. pressure on Yasser Arafat at talks in Washington.
The helicopter gunship attack in the West Bank city of Nablus was the second air strike in a day on the compound in retaliation for the killing of three Israelis by a Palestinian gunman in a raid on a Jewish settlement on Wednesday night.
Troubled by the continuing bloodshed and alarmed at overt U.S. support for Israel, the European Union was preparing a new peace initiative which diplomats said would dominate an EU foreign ministers' conference set for this weekend in Spain.
Ahead of Sharon's meeting with President Bush later on Thursday, the United States -- the Jewish state's staunchest ally -- rebuffed Israeli appeals to sever ties with Arafat.
But the White House reaffirmed its insistence that the Palestinian president must do more to rein in militants who have mounted attacks on Israeli -- a demand which Sharon was expected to ask Bush to back with concrete actions.
Arafat said on Thursday he was ready to negotiate peace with Israel under U.S. auspices.
"The main sponsors of the peace process are the Americans," Arafat told BBC radio. "It started with President Bush, the father, with the (1991) Madrid conference, and we hope that President Bush, the son, will complete the mission."
Israel met its Arab neighbors for groundbreaking peace talks launched in Madrid in 1991 when George Bush, the father, was U.S. president.
But U.S.-led efforts to end more than 16 months of violence have failed to produce a lasting cease-fire.
CYCLE OF VIOLENCE CONTINUES
In the latest cycle of attacks, Israel targeted the Palestinian Authority's headquarters in Nablus on Thursday night for the second time in less than 24 hours.
Warplanes hit the same compound before dawn on Thursday, wounding 11 people. A second strike after dark destroyed an intelligence building and injured at least one person.
Shortly after that, a bomb exploded at an Israeli army checkpoint outside the West Bank city of Bethlehem. No casualties were reported.
The army said its air raids were reprisals for the "murderous shooting attack" at the Hamra settlement in the West Bank in which a soldier, a mother and her 11-year-old daughter were killed.
But Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said the timing of Thursday's missile strikes -- while Sharon was in Washington -- showed the Israeli leader's "determination...to destroy the Palestinian Authority and the peace process."
"In order to get the process back on track, the United States and the international community should stop dealing with Sharon as if he were above the law," he told Reuters.
Sharon has kept Arafat effectively confined to his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah by a ring of tanks since early December, following a wave of suicide bombings inside Israel.
The United States has expressed "understanding" for Sharon's tough moves against Arafat and has refrained from criticizing Israel for its frequent incursions into Palestinian areas and what it calls the "targeted killings" of militants.
The European Parliament tried to break Arafat's isolation on Thursday by inviting him to address it despite Israel's pledge not to allow him to leave Ramallah until he arrests the assassins of an Israeli cabinet minister.
Israel said it held Arafat and his Palestinian Authority ultimately responsible for the bloody raid on the Hamra settlement.
Soldiers shot the gunman dead. Palestinian security sources identified him as Mohammed Ziyyad al-Halili, a militant from Nablus who was on Israel's most-wanted list.
The Islamic group Hamas claimed responsibility, saying it was avenging Israel's killings of its leaders.
At least 833 Palestinians and 252 Israelis have been killed since Palestinians began an uprising against Israeli occupation in September 2000.
February 07, 2002 05:44 PM ET (http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml;jsessionid=DR2Z4DLDLXX5WCRBAEZSFEYKEEATIIWD?type=worldne ws&StoryID=579728)
By Atef Saad
NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) - Israel destroyed a Palestinian security building in an air strike on Thursday as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon prepared to seek more U.S. pressure on Yasser Arafat at talks in Washington.
The helicopter gunship attack in the West Bank city of Nablus was the second air strike in a day on the compound in retaliation for the killing of three Israelis by a Palestinian gunman in a raid on a Jewish settlement on Wednesday night.
Troubled by the continuing bloodshed and alarmed at overt U.S. support for Israel, the European Union was preparing a new peace initiative which diplomats said would dominate an EU foreign ministers' conference set for this weekend in Spain.
Ahead of Sharon's meeting with President Bush later on Thursday, the United States -- the Jewish state's staunchest ally -- rebuffed Israeli appeals to sever ties with Arafat.
But the White House reaffirmed its insistence that the Palestinian president must do more to rein in militants who have mounted attacks on Israeli -- a demand which Sharon was expected to ask Bush to back with concrete actions.
Arafat said on Thursday he was ready to negotiate peace with Israel under U.S. auspices.
"The main sponsors of the peace process are the Americans," Arafat told BBC radio. "It started with President Bush, the father, with the (1991) Madrid conference, and we hope that President Bush, the son, will complete the mission."
Israel met its Arab neighbors for groundbreaking peace talks launched in Madrid in 1991 when George Bush, the father, was U.S. president.
But U.S.-led efforts to end more than 16 months of violence have failed to produce a lasting cease-fire.
CYCLE OF VIOLENCE CONTINUES
In the latest cycle of attacks, Israel targeted the Palestinian Authority's headquarters in Nablus on Thursday night for the second time in less than 24 hours.
Warplanes hit the same compound before dawn on Thursday, wounding 11 people. A second strike after dark destroyed an intelligence building and injured at least one person.
Shortly after that, a bomb exploded at an Israeli army checkpoint outside the West Bank city of Bethlehem. No casualties were reported.
The army said its air raids were reprisals for the "murderous shooting attack" at the Hamra settlement in the West Bank in which a soldier, a mother and her 11-year-old daughter were killed.
But Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said the timing of Thursday's missile strikes -- while Sharon was in Washington -- showed the Israeli leader's "determination...to destroy the Palestinian Authority and the peace process."
"In order to get the process back on track, the United States and the international community should stop dealing with Sharon as if he were above the law," he told Reuters.
Sharon has kept Arafat effectively confined to his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah by a ring of tanks since early December, following a wave of suicide bombings inside Israel.
The United States has expressed "understanding" for Sharon's tough moves against Arafat and has refrained from criticizing Israel for its frequent incursions into Palestinian areas and what it calls the "targeted killings" of militants.
The European Parliament tried to break Arafat's isolation on Thursday by inviting him to address it despite Israel's pledge not to allow him to leave Ramallah until he arrests the assassins of an Israeli cabinet minister.
Israel said it held Arafat and his Palestinian Authority ultimately responsible for the bloody raid on the Hamra settlement.
Soldiers shot the gunman dead. Palestinian security sources identified him as Mohammed Ziyyad al-Halili, a militant from Nablus who was on Israel's most-wanted list.
The Islamic group Hamas claimed responsibility, saying it was avenging Israel's killings of its leaders.
At least 833 Palestinians and 252 Israelis have been killed since Palestinians began an uprising against Israeli occupation in September 2000.