Israeli tanks roll as 'collaborators' killed
Telegraph, 01/04/2002
Israeli tanks roll as 'collaborators' killed
(Filed: 01/04/2002)
PALESTINIAN gunmen killed eight suspected collaborators today as Israeli
forces tightened their siege on Yasser Arafat and the West Bank, dragging
the region towards 'all-out war'.
Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, who has vowed
an "uncompromising war" against terrorism, today sent tanks and troops
towards the West Bank town of Bethlehem. Other tanks were moving through
nearby Beit Jala after 60 tanks seized the autonomous town of Qalqiliya
yesterday.
Later today, two masked Palestinian gunmen entered
an intelligence building in the West Bank town of Tulkarm and killed eight
prisoners suspected of collaborating with Israel, security sources and
witnesses said.
Israel has been under mounting pressure from the
world community to pull back its forces besieging Mr Arafat's headquarters
in the city of Ramallah since Friday.
The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
ministers, meeting in Kuala Lumpur, "strongly condemned the recent Israeli
storming of Palestinian cities and villages as well as the headquarters
of the Palestinian presidency and endangering the life of President Arafat."
"Israel's terrorist actions and aggressive practices,
posing a threat to international peace and security, and dragging the region
towards an all-out war, necessitate immediate action by the UN Security
Council to apply Chapter VII of the UN Charter."
Under a clause in this section, the Security Council
can order the use of force to maintain international peace and security
if all other means are deemed to have failed.
Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon last night said,
"The state of Israel is in a war," in a five-minute speech on Israeli television.
"The terror is being directed and orchestrated by
one person, Yasser Arafat," Mr Sharon said. "He is the head of a coalition
of terror, and an enemy of Israel and an enemy of the free world."
Israeli envoy to the UK Zvi Shtauberi said today
his country was ready to discuss the issue of its settlements on the West
Bank in an attempt to find a solution to the violence engulfing the Middle
East.
But Mr Shtauberi insisted that the Palestinians
and the wider Arab world had to recognise Israel's right to exist, and
desist from attacks aimed at destroying the state.
Claims by terror groups such as Hamas that they
were fighting for an end to the occupation of Palestinian territories were
bogus, Mr Shtauber told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
Five suicide attacks since Wednesday have shattered
hopes for a truce, and faced the United States with world criticism over
its unwavering support for an increasingly isolated Israel.
President Bush condemned the attacks but said he
would keep his Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni in the region to keep working
for an end to the violence that has killed nearly 1,700 people in 18 months.
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2002
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