17 January 2008

Israel killed the military leader of Islamic Jihad's Occupied West Bank branch early Wednesday morning, while an Israeli air strike killed three civilians - including a child -  in the heart of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, one day after the deadliest day of violence in the territory for more than a year.

In an early-morning gun battle near the town of Jenin in the northern Occupied West Bank, Israeli troops shot dead Walid Obeidi, 40, after surrounding his home in the village of Qabatiya, security officials said.

An Israeli military spokesman confirmed that troops had killed Obeidi - considered the West Bank chief of Islamic Jihad's armed wing - and said a second militant was arrested.

The air strike victims - a 13-year-old boy, his father and uncle - were killed when a missile hit their car in Gaza City, medics said. The military said it had killed civilians "in error" while targeting militants.

"The Israeli Army has recognized that during an operation against terrorists in the Gaza Strip a vehicle that was close to the target was hit in error," an army spokeswoman said. "An investigation has been opened." 

Israeli-Palestinian fighting has escalated since the two sides revived peace talks in November, overshadowing US President George W. Bush's prediction of a deal by the time he leaves office in January 2009.

Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal on Wednesday told reporters in Damascus that the Gaza "massacre" confirmed the futility of negotiating with Israel.

"This shedding of Palestinian blood will shorten the existence of Israel and will destroy it," Meshaal said. "No peace with the killers and no security for the criminals." 

He charged that Bush's tour "gave cover to this massacre" - and called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to halt the "absurd" peace talks.

"Every day you are humiliated [by the Israelis], and you emerge [from talks] empty-handed," he said of Abbas.

Wednesday's Gaza strike followed the deaths of 19 Palestinians in Israeli raids on Gaza on Tuesday. Many shops stayed shut in the strip on Wednesday after a call by Hamas for three days of mourning and a day-long general strike.

Another three people were seriously wounded in Wednesday's Gaza City strike, while another four Palestinians were wounded in two Israeli raids in the north of the impoverished territory, medics said.

Palestinian militants responded with a barrage of some 30 homemade rockets and mortar shells at southern Israel, without causing any casualties.

Israel carries out raids almost every day in Gaza - where Hamas seized power in June 2007 - saying it wants to curb  rocket and mortar fire.

Israelis and Palestinians began peace talks on Monday on the core issues of their conflict - Occupied Jerusalem, settlements, borders and refugee.

But Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa on Wednesday harshly condemned the latest Israeli attack in the Gaza Strip, telling reporters it "raises question marks over the future of efforts to advance Arab-Israeli peace." 

Since November more than 120 Palestinians, most of them militants, have been killed by Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip alone, according to an AFP count.

Amid the violence, Israel's ultra-nationalist strategic affairs minister, Avigdor Lieberman, announced he would withdraw his Yisrael Beitenu party from the government in protest at core issues being discussed in the peace talks.

"Everyone knows that this process will lead nowhere," Lieberman said.

The departure of Yisrael Beitenu's 11 MPs still leaves Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's broad coalition government with 67 seats in the 120-member legislature.

But it weakens the premier ahead of the January 30 release of a final government-commissioned report on the political and military leadership's conduct during the summer 2006 war against Lebanon, expected to be highly critical of Olmert.

With Lieberman out, the political spotlight has turned on the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, which has 12 seats in the Knesset but has also threatened to pull out of the government if the fate of Jerusalem is discussed during the negotiations.

Lieberman had repeatedly threatened to leave the government once Israeli negotiators began tackling the core issues of Israel's decades-old conflict with the Palestinians.

"Negotiations on the basis of land for peace is a fatal mistake," Lieberman, whose party advocates the forced "transfer" of Palestinians to Jordan and other Arab countris,  told a news conference. "If we pull back to the 1967 borders, everyone should ask himself, what will happen the following day? Will the conflict stop, will the terror stop? Nothing will change."

Lieberman's move might also be tied to political maneuvering - sitting in a peacemaking coalition could undermine any ambitions he might have to position himself as the leader of Israel's political right wing.

Olmert tried to persuade Lieberman to stay in the government in a Tuesday meeting, but failed. After Lieberman's announcement, Olmert's office released a statement saying the prime minister was determined to pursue peacemaking.

"There is no substitute for serious negotiations," the statement said. "That is the order of the hour." Ruhama Avraham, a minister from Olmert's Kadima Party, said the government would survive the defection.

Olmert brought Lieberman into his coalition in October 2006 to prop up his government, badly weakened by the Lebanon war. Israel's peace camp accused him at the time of seeking a pretext to avoid concessions to the Palestinians. On Wednesday, they welcomed Lieberman's departure.

"Today, I think that Olmert is in a better position to proceed with the peace process," said Yossi Beilin of the dovish Meretz Party. "My hope is that now the way will be clear and there will be no excuses to proceed with an agreement in 2008." - AFP, AP

Copyright The Daily Star 2008.