Thursday, Apr 22, 2004
Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians during a second day of clashes in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday, after tanks moved in to protect Jewish settlements that Ariel Sharon has pledged to remove.
Four Palestinians were killed and 25 wounded on Tuesday when Israeli forces raided the same area of scrub near the Palestinian village of Beit Lahia, which the army says is being used to fire missiles at nearby border settlements.
Palestinian officials, including members of the peace camp, warned that the escalation of violence in recent days was a taste of things to come if the Israeli prime minister's "flawed" disengagement plan were allowed to go ahead.
Some diplomats also warned that the international community could be dragged into the Gaza morass if it took on a role in administering the territory after the Israeli pullout.
Palestinian officials said Israel's plans, backed by the US, to maintain a tight grip on the Gaza Strip after settlers depart, will worsen the violence and destroy what remains of the peace process. The situation in the territory has deteriorated since an Israeli missile last week killed Abdel Aziz Rantissi, head of Hamas, the second leader of the Islamic movement to be assassinated in a month.
Mr Sharon said this week that the hunt for the militants would continue. "We got rid of murderer number one and murderer number two," he said. "And it isn't over. The list is not short."
Israel wants to prevent Hamas from claiming the Gaza evacuation as a victory and filling the power vacuum once Israel withdraws.
Ziad Abu Amr, a Palestinian parliamentarian who has been involved in talks on securing a post-withdrawal pact between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, said Rantissi's death was less shocking than President George W. Bush's letter of guarantees to Israel. "The assassination was to be expected, but Bush has created tremendous problems for the Palestinians. What he has done won't produce any real peace, stability or security," said Mr Abu Amr.
Last week's Sharon-Bush summit in Washington was the green light for Mr Sharon to publish the details of his disengagement plan.
Palestinian officials who have studied it reject Mr Sharon's claim that the evacuation of the 7,500 settlers will end the occupation that began in 1967. Israel will continue to control all access to and from the territory and keep troops on the Philadelphi Road that divides it from Egypt.
Air and sea space will remain under Israeli control and will be patrolled by the Israeli air force and navy. Israel also reserves the right to enter the territory in pursuit of Palestinian militants.
Israel wants to hand over administration of evacuated settlements to an international body that would include existing donor countries and institutions. Some diplomats fear Gazans might interpret the international role as a proxy continuation of the Israeli occupation.
"The plan will turn Gaza into a huge jail," said Sufian Abu Zaida, a leading moderate in the Fatah movement of Yassir Arafat, PA leader.
"It would be illogical to object to Israel leaving any part of Gaza. But if they don't leave completely, the situation will become even more complex," he said. "Would the PA then have the right to ask the militants to stop fighting? Nothing will change."
Palestinian moderates anticipate a further radicalisation of the militant 1.2m Gaza population, which overwhelmingly supports Hamas.
Ghazi Hamad, editor of Risala, a newspaper close to the Islamists, said: "After the assassinations and the Bush summit, all factions are in the same boat so we have to talk about strengthening the resistance."
The Palestinian peace camp is trying to persuade the US's partners in the international Quartet - the European Union, the United Nations and Russia - to fight Mr Bush's guarantees, which also endorsed Israel's possession of larger settlements in the West Bank.
Yasser Abed Rabbo, co-author of the Geneva peace accords, a private Palestinian-Israeli initiative, has written to world leaders to appeal for them to oppose the Sharon plan on the basis of international law.
"Had the Israeli withdrawal been complete - both in terms of territory and attributes of sovereignty - the Gaza withdrawal would have indeed been a fundamentally significant step," he wrote. "As it stands now, it is a quantitative step that carries within it the seeds for continued conflict."
According to people close to Hamas, an appeal by mosques in the Gaza Strip has raised Dollars 1m for Hamas' military wing. US support sincere, Page 19
By HARVEY MORRIS
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