JERUSALEM - A furious weekend of Palestinian attacks and Israeli reprisals, in which at least 11 people died, has left the two sides further apart than ever in efforts to end 11 months of violence and seek a peace settlement.
Israeli warplanes, tanks and bulldozers wrecked Palestinian security buildings yesterday in response to seven Israeli deaths. Four Palestinians also died in the fighting.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat branded the strikes barbaric, while Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer referred to Arafat as a cruel enemy.
"Before us is a cruel enemy ... because everything that happens in the field is precisely what he wants," Ben-Eliezer told a gathering of his Labour Party.
"We will fight terror to the bitter end. No one can expect us to sit quietly and do nothing when you know two suicide bombers are on their way to carry out an attack."
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened a security meeting with cabinet ministers and security officials to discuss the latest violence.
F-16 and F-15 jets left in ruins three Palestinian security headquarters in the Gaza Strip and West Bank in a bombardment after two Palestinian gunmen entered an Israeli base in Gaza at the weekend and killed three soldiers before they were shot dead.
Two other Palestinians died in the Gaza fighting. In two separate incidents, three members of an Israeli family and an Israeli merchant were shot dead by Palestinian gunmen on roads that straddle the West Bank and the Jewish state proper.
An armed group linked to Arafat's Fatah faction took responsibility for the two roadway shootings in the West Bank and Israel's response to the four deaths was not far behind.
Israeli helicopters fired seven missiles and destroyed a Palestinian police post in the town of Tulkarm close to the point where clothing merchant Dov Roseman, aged 58, was killed when he came to trade with Palestinian villagers.
Israeli tanks also wrecked three Palestinian security posts by shelling in the city of Ramallah, wounding seven people.
The latest attacks lowered the prospect for proposed truce talks between Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who had agreed last week to meet under German auspices.
Of the moment when soldiers came to inform him of his son's death, Nissim Anza, father of Major Gil Oz, said: "When I opened the door I suddenly saw three people in uniform hugging me from every direction. They didn't have to say anything. I understood."
Oz was killed at the Gaza Army base. "From that moment, my world has changed. Part of it perhaps has gone forever."
In separate violence, three Palestinians, including an 11-year-old boy, were wounded during an exchange of fire with Israeli troops near the West Bank town of Bethlehem.
- REUTERS
Feature: Middle East
Map
UN: Information on the Question of Palestine
Israel's Permanent Mission to the UN
Palestine's Permanent Observer Mission to the UN
Middle East Daily
Arabic News
Arabic Media Internet Network
Jerusalem Post
Israel Wire
US Department of State - Middle East Peace Process
Middle East bloodshed escalates with fresh attacks
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
