Four people were killed when gunmen attacked an Israeli settlement in the West Bank yesterday in the first such assault since Israel launched a four-week-old military sweep through Palestinian-ruled cities.
Meanwhile, a UN mission to find out what happened during Israel's three-week military operation in the Jenin refugee camp waited in Geneva for a green light to depart for the region.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan agreed to hold the team back at the request of Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, to give the Israeli cabinet time to discuss the fact-finding mission at its meeting this morning, a UN official said.
PHOTO: AP
The Israeli army said four people had been killed and six wounded, one of them severely, in the attack by one or two gunmen on Adora, a few kilometers west of the divided city of Hebron. The army had earlier put the death toll at five.
The attack came a day after US President George W. Bush insisted Israel must end its military offensive "now," after another Israeli raid defied his earlier demands.
"The attack this morning against Israeli citizens in the West Bank proves that terror has not yet been eradicated," Israeli government spokesman Aryeh Mekel said.
There was no immediate Palestinian comment.
Hebron was the only big West Bank city not reoccupied in Israel's offensive, perhaps because the army feared a full-scale assault would endanger about 400 Jewish settlers living in heavily guarded enclaves among 120,000 Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon unleashed the West Bank campaign on March 29 after suicide attacks killed scores of Israelis. Israel says many of the attackers came from the Jenin refugee camp, scene of the fiercest fighting in the offensive.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on Adora and the assailants appeared to have escaped.
Israeli media said two gunmen had entered a house in Adora and fired on a sleeping couple before moving to another house and opening fire. Settlers remained confined to their homes as security forces combed the area.
In Bethlehem, Israeli soldiers besieging the Church of the Nativity wounded a Palestinian inside, an Israeli military source said. "The man was messing with some cables near the door of the church and he was armed so we fired on him. He will be taken by ambulance for medical treatment," the source said.
Beefed up by security advisers at Israel's behest, the UN team had been due to leave Geneva for Tel Aviv. Annan's agreement comes after Israeli officials insisted it be made clear that the mission was limited to the West Bank camp.
Palestinians say hundreds of civilians may have died in the Jenin camp, many in homes flattened by tank fire and bulldozers.
Israel first accepted the mission, then threatened to block it, apparently fearing it would find itself in the dock.
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
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The Central Weather Administration (CWA) is set to issue sea and land warnings for Tropical Storm Krathon as projections showed that the tropical storm could strengthen into a typhoon as it approaches Taiwan proper, the CWA said yesterday. The sea warning is scheduled to take effect this morning and the land warning this evening, it said. The storm formed yesterday morning and in the evening reached a point 620 nautical miles (1,148km) southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, moving west-southwest at 4 kph as it strengthened, the CWA said. Its radius measured between 220km and 250km, it added. Krathon is projected
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