Issue No. 609
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24 - 30 October 2002 Issue No. 609 Region |
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Killing cycles
An Israeli massacre followed by a Palestinian suicide bombing. Khaled Amayreh, in Hebron, reports the endless cycle of violence
In an apparent retaliation for the wanton Israeli killings of Palestinian civilians, which claimed the lives of more than 50 Palestinian men, women and children in less than five weeks, Palestinian militants hit back this week, killing 16 Israelis, most of them soldiers.
On 21 October, a Palestinian suicide bomber infiltrated Israel proper, and rammed a jeep laden with some 100kg of home-made explosives into the trunk of an Israeli bus, igniting a series of blasts that turned the vehicle into a fireball. The fire gutted the bus, reducing it to charred twisted metal.
Israeli hospital sources said at least 16 people were killed in the bombing and more than 60 were injured, six seriously. According to initial reports, most of the dead and injured were apparently soldiers on their way to Tel Aviv.
The Al-Quds Regiments, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad organisation, claimed responsibility for the bombing, which it said came "in retaliation to the series of massacres committed by the criminal enemy against our people". The group said it hit a military, rather than a civilian target -- an allusion to reports that the bus was mainly carrying soldiers.
"We have no choice but to defend ourselves," Mohamed Al-Hindi, a senior Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza, told Al-Ahram Weekly. "The world was utterly silent in the face of recent Israeli massacres in Rafah and Khan Younis. Does the world think that the lives of Palestinian civilians are worthless?"
Al-Hindi was referring to an Israeli artillery shelling of a crowded Palestinian neighbourhood in Rafah on 17 October, in which eight Palestinian civilians, including two small children, were killed. Over 40 other civilians were maimed and injured by flying shrapnel.
The carnage occurred 10 days after 17 other Palestinian civilians were killed when an Israeli helicopter gunship fired several missiles at a civilian crowd outside a Khan Younis mosque.
Another spokesman for the Islamic Jihad denied suggestions that the car bomb attack was meant to undermine American envoy William Burns' visit to the region.
"We are not concerned about such visits. Many American and European envoys visited Palestine, but they all failed to force Israel to end its occupation and oppression," he said.
Islamic Jihad sources in Gaza told the Weekly that the bombing was carried out to coincide with the seventh anniversary of the assassination by the Israeli Mossad of Fathi Sheqaqi, founder of the Islamic Jihad, in Malta in 1995.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority immediately condemned the latest bus bombing. PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, speaking outside the remains of his battered headquarters in Ramallah, reiterated his condemnation of "all attacks on civilians, Palestinian and Israeli alike".
PA official Saeb Erekat rejected Israeli accusations that the PA was to blame for the bombing. "How could we possibly be responsible when the Israeli army controls every Palestinian town, village and hamlet?" asked Erekat during an interview with the BBC.
THE REMAINS: Israel is still calculating its reaction to Monday's suicide bomb which killed 16 Israelis and wounded 60 others (photo: AFP)
Following the attack, the Israeli army sealed off the bulk of the northern part of the West Bank, placing the cities of Tulkarm, Jenin and Qalqilya under curfew. The nearly two-year- old blockade of the West Bank was further tightened and routine Israeli restrictions on movement were made even stricter.
So far, the usual swift and severe Israeli response has not yet materialised.
"There will be a response, but it may not be immediate," an Israeli source close to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said. "It will probably be a pinpointed response."
It is possible that Israel is putting off its response until Burns's visit to Israel and the occupied territories which began yesterday is over. Burns, currently on an extensive visit to the Middle East covering 13 countries, is trying to enlist Arab support for America's vision for the creation of a Palestinian state.
Both Israel and the Palestinians have deep reservations about the American plan. For Sharon, the plan interferes with his own territorial designs in the West Bank, mainly the expansion of Jewish settlements and evisceration of Palestinian national aspirations for independence and statehood. And, for the Palestinians, the plan constitutes a snide departure from UN resolutions, the Madrid Peace Conference and the land-for-peace formula.
But what the Palestinian leadership dreads most is the envisaged negotiations under the plan between Israel and the Palestinians on the final borders of the proposed Palestinian state.
"We have been negotiating the issue of borders with Israel for the past 10 years, but to no avail. The problem is not holding more negotiations, the problem lies in Israel's adamant refusal to implement UN resolutions 242 and 338. That is the crux of the matter," said Ahmed Abdul-Rahman, a Palestinian official.
Meanwhile, the Israeli government suspended the Israeli army's partial redeployment in the southern West Bank city of Hebron.
The "reduction of the army presence" in Hebron was to take place on 21 October, in accordance with orders to that effect from Israeli Defence Minister Benyamin Ben- Eliezer.
The planned partial redeployment from parts of the PA-administered section of Hebron will mean more freedom of movement for the 160,000 Palestinians in Hebron.
But the town, like all the other Palestinian towns in the West Bank, will remain effectively besieged by Israeli roadblocks and fortified army positions. The Israeli army will retain the right to return to the vacated neighbourhoods if and when deemed necessary.
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