Two Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli yesterday at an industrial zone on the Gaza Strip border.
The gunmen were shot dead by Israeli security personnel.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group in Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, claimed responsibility for what it called a "martyrdom operation" at the Erez border crossing.
At least two other Israelis were wounded in the early morning clash, an Israeli security source said.
Since a woman suicide bomber from the Islamic group Hamas killed four people at Erez last month, the Israeli military has stepped up supervision over some 3,000 Palestinian workers who flock to the crossing every day.
No immediate comment was available from the military, but the Palestinian workers were sent home after the clash.
Witnesses said they heard firing in the area after the clash and saw troops searching a nearby sewage canal.
Palestinian security sources said the gunmen were believed to have used the canal to infiltrate the industrial zone.
Arafat told a meeting of Fatah on Wednesday he would push again for peace with Israel and hold internal elections to promote reform.
On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon seemed to rule out talks with the present Palestinian leadership by calling it one of "murder and lies."
But on Wednesday aides to Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia met again to try to set up a meeting between the two and said the result was positive.
Fatah's Revolutionary Council, a key decision-making body, met for the first time in three years to head off disintegration marked by mass rank-and-file resignations over the dominant old guard's alleged misrule and armed anarchy in the streets.
Participants said a possible dissolution of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which has been behind suicide bombings against Israelis, was not discussed but could come up in a reform debate set for yesterday and today.
Qureia told the meeting he was under a lot of US, European and Arab government pressure to hold talks with Sharon and said "maybe I will meet him in the coming days." He did not elaborate.
Qureia, a moderate, said Palestinian security services must crack down on growing lawlessness perpetrated by militia groups, some of them spin-offs from Fatah.
But Qureia's efforts to take charge of security to rein in militant violence have been blocked by Arafat and his calls for order have been disregarded.
Most Fatah leaders privately favor dismantling the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a jumble of armed groups in Fatah that have flouted policy banning suicide attacks and confining resistance to Israeli-occupied land where Palestinians seek statehood.
Some officials suspect the crisis in Fatah could destroy a movement that has spearheaded the Palestinian cause since the 1960s.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
RSS