Homepage    |  Inhaltsverzeichnis - Contents
Israeli tanks roll as 'collaborators' killed
Telegraph, 01/04/2002


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/04/01/uisr.xml&sSheet=/portal/2002/04/01/ixport.html

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



wplarre@bndlg.de  Mailsenden

Homepage    | Inhaltsverzeichnis - Contents
 

Seite erstellt am 01.04.2002