Israeli killed in Har Homa shooting attack; 8 hurt near Ramallah Panel stalls call-up notices for 31,000 reservists
Ha`aretz, April 01, 2002; Nisan 19, 5762
Monday, April 01, 2002 Nisan 19, 5762
Israel Time: 08:00 (GMT+3)
Last update - 18:51 01/04/2002
Israeli killed in Har Homa shooting attack; 8 hurt near Ramallah
By Amos Harel, Haim Shadmi and Amira Hass (Ramallah), Ha'aretz Correspondents and Agencies
An Israeli was killed Monday afternoon near Jerusalem's Har Homa neighborhood
by a Palestinian sniper in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. He was taken
in critical condition to Jerusalem's Hadassah University Hospital, Ein
Karem, where he later died of his wounds.
Earlier Monday, eight Israelis were injured, one
seriously and seven moderately to lightly, in a shooting attack in the
Ramallah area in the West Bank. The attack took place at around 3:30 P.M.
and the eight were taken to the settlement of Beit El and from there to
Jerusalem's Hadassah Ein Kerem and Mount Scopus hospitals.
Large forces of IDF infantry, armor and combat engineers
poured into and took over the West Bank town of Qalqilyah overnight, as
Israel's "Operation Defense Wall" entered its fourth day Monday.
Eight soldiers were injured during the thrust into
Qalqilyah, one of them seriously. They were hurt when a nearby bomb exploded
during searches for wanted men and weapons in the city, Army Radio reported.
IDF troops were also operating Monday in the Tul
Karm area, tightening the blockade over the city, as well as in Beit Jala
and other areas near Bethlehem. In Ramallah, they maintained the round-the-clock
confinement of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, under virtual house arrest
in a small portion of his headquarters compound.
The IDF was gearing up for operations in other Palestinian
population centers as well. Military sources said Sunday that all the cities
of the West Bank would gradually be "taken care of," with military activity
expected in the Gaza Strip as well.
Close to midnight Sunday, Palestinians in Qalqilyah
reported that electricity and water to the town had been cut, ahead of
the IDF push into the city. Soon thereafter, some 100 tanks and other armored
vehicles entered and took over the town, which has served in the past as
a base for attacks on neighboring Israeli cities, notably Kfar Sava.
In Ramallah on Sunday, Arafat remained defiant as
Israeli troops battled his guards and tightened their ring round his headquarters.
Witnesses said at least two people were killed and
six of Arafat's guards wounded in Ramallah on Sunday, and scores of Palestinians
were arrested in the city.
Masked Palestinian gunmen kill eight collaborators
in Tul Karm Two masked Palestinian gunmen entered an intelligence
building in Tul Karm on Monday and killed eight men suspected of collaborating
with Israel, security sources and witnesses said.
The security sources said Palestinian intelligence
officers guarding the building had left their posts when Israeli tanks
moved towards the town because they believed the army was poised to enter.
Their departure allowed the two gunmen to enter the building and shoot
the men dead, the sources said.
Their bodies were dragged out to the road where
hundreds of Palestinian onlookers gathered.
Earlier Monday, the bodies of three Palestinians
accused of collaborating with Israel were found in the West Bank, Palestinian
security sources said. Two were killed after they had been jailed for more
than a year.
In Qalqilyah, the bodies of Iyad Abu Ishab, 20,
and Walid Radwan, 22, were found riddled with bullets in a side street
of the West Bank town.
Palestinians security sources said the two men,
who had been arrested and charged for collaborating more than a year ago,
were killed by their prison guards. It was not immediately known whether
the men were killed in jail and whether their bodies were dumped in the
street.
The body of the third suspected collaborator, Mahmood
Rahamie, 21, was found in Bethlehem near Manger Square, the traditional
birthplace of Jesus. In a statement to Palestinian security forces, the
Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Fatah's military wing, said Rahamie had been killed
after he was caught sending information to the Israelis over the Internet
and by e-mail.
The gunmen who are believed to have shot Rahamie
dead, confiscated television footage and photographs of the incident.
A Reuters cameraman and a Reuters photographer who
were on the scene shortly afterwards filmed the dead man, who was blindfolded
and had his hands tied, as well as his killers.
The gunmen initially allowed Reuters and several
other media organizations to continue filming but later ordered them to
hand over the footage and photographs, saying: "We will hold you personally
responsible if these pictures appear."
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Monday, April 01, 2002 Nisan 19, 5762
Israel Time: 08:01 (GMT+3)
Last update - 18:55 01/04/2002
Panel stalls call-up notices for 31,000 reservists
By Gideon Alon, Ha'aretz Correspondent
The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee decided Monday not
to authorize Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer's request to issue mandatory
tzav 8 call-up notices to a second round of 31,000 reservists. Committee
members claimed that Ben-Eliezer has not furnished sufficient arguments
for calling up this lot reservists and the MKs stressed that they are not
prepared to act as rubber stamps.
The committee is to meet again Thursday to again
review the request. It asked that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and IDF Chief
of Staff Shaul Mofaz appear at this discussion, to explain the rationale
behind the request.
Committee chairman MK David Magen (Center) said
that the request has to reviewed in detail, and that matters such as insurance
for the reservists must be taken into account.
MK Yosef Lapid (Shinui) explained that the committee's
objections to the request derive from the disdain displayed toward the
panel by the government. Sharon's government decided to issue the call-up
orders without consulting the committee, Lapid said.
Ben-Eliezer told the committee that "the IDF's operation
will succeed if, when it ends, it will be possible to continue with the
political track. The political future is the Saudi [Crown Prince Abdullah]
initiative." He also said that the goal of the operation was not to wipe
out terrorism, but rather, to wipe out the terror infrastructure.
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