Israel tightens grip on Gaza before Powell visit

GAZA – Israel has tightened its blockade of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in anticipation of the first visit by US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

In more violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers yesterday shot and killed a 21-year-old Palestinian during a clash in the West Bank village of el-Khader, Palestinian hospital officials said.

The killing of Raed Mussa took the death toll in five months of violence to 331 Palestinians, 61 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs.

The Israeli army said it tightened its roadblock, in effect dividing the Gaza Strip, "following an increase in terrorist actions...the peak of which was the firing of a mortar shell at the Jewish settlement of Aley Sinai".

The army said its forces had demolished two Palestinian police outposts near Aley Sinai, in the northern Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian security chief in Gaza said a single outpost was "almost destroyed" and Palestinian forces later forced the Israelis to pull back.

Powell, due to arrive in Israel this morning, is expected to demand Israel ease its blockade to prevent the collapse of the Palestinian economy.

But Zalman Shoval, an adviser to Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon, told reporters during a visit to Berlin on Friday that the United States should have a lower profile in Middle East peacemaking.

"I don't think anyone should be the mediator between us and the Palestinians. We must make peace with one another," Shoval, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, said.

"The American position became too prominent. They were not only mediators, but practically also the judge and sheriff. But this did not lead to results," he said.

Israel has tightened its grip on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, areas which are home to three million Palestinians, since the Palestinians began an uprising for independence in late September. Palestinians call the blockade collective punishment.

The latest Israeli roadblock effectively divided Gaza - which Powell will visit today to meet Palestinian President Yasser Arafat - in half.

Witnesses said Palestinians abandoned cars and walked along a beach to get around the two tanks and two jeeps blocking the road that joins north and south Gaza.

In a later statement reporting demolition of the two Palestinian outposts near Aley Sinai, the army said they were "used by the Palestinians to carry out terror attacks against civilians and Israeli army forces moving in the area".

"This operation came in response to an increase of terror attacks recently, including the firing of mortar shells on the Aley Sinai settlement two nights ago."

Palestinian Major-General Abdel-Razek Al-Majaudeh, Public Security chief in Gaza, said Israeli forces had "escalated their aggressive attacks" in the area. "If the continued Israeli military escalation does not stop, it will only lead the region into a circle of more violence," he said.

In other incidents, Israeli troops shot and critically wounded a 17-year-old Palestinian near the Gaza-Egypt border, Palestinian witnesses and hospital officials said.

Earlier in the day, Palestinian militants in Gaza detonated two bombs and hurt a soldier when troops opened two main roads.

Following Muslim Friday prayers in the divided West Bank city of Hebron, Palestinians threw stones and petrol bombs at soldiers guarding the Jewish settlement.

The soldiers fired rubber-coated metal bullets and stun grenades at the demonstrators, some of them masked. No casualties were reported.

At least 40 Palestinians were hurt in clashes with Israeli troops in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

On his brief weekend visit, Powell is expected to demand that Israel ease its economic sanctions on the Palestinian Authority, which has lost hundreds of millions of dollars as a result of the Israeli blockades.

He is expected to meet Arafat in Gaza on Sunday, shortly after holding talks with Sharon. He will also meet Israel's outgoing prime minister, Ehud Barak, beaten by Sharon in a February 6 election.

Powell wants to discuss security and economic issues, as well as prospects for peace in the Middle East.

But a U.S. State Department spokesman said the next steps in tackling the Israeli- Palestinian conflict were likely to be put on hold until Sharon's government was formed.

Sharon also made clear in a speech to a Jerusalem conference of leaders of U.S. Jewish groups that he wanted to shift the focus in Israel's relations with the United States, its traditional superpower guardian.

He said Israel must concentrate on restoring its ties with the U.S. Congress and establishing a "working relationship" with the new administration of President George W. Bush.

Sharon, 72, had hoped to lure Barak's centre-left Labour Party into a coalition with his right-wing Likud before Powell's visit to the Middle East, which will also take him to Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Syria and Saudi Arabia.

- REUTERS

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