The latest Palestinian suicide bombing and a ceaseless spate of attack alerts may leave Israel no option but to take unilateral steps stripping Palestinians of land they seek for a state, political sources said on Friday.
The bombing that killed four Israelis including three soldiers at a bus stop near Tel Aviv on Thursday was the first in seven weeks. It came minutes after Israel killed an Islamic militant, his deputy and three bystanders in a Gaza air strike. Palestinian leaders condemned both attacks while saying Israel's continued search-and-arrest forays against militants were frustrating Egyptian-brokered efforts to arrange a truce.
Israeli officials said there were 52 pending "red alerts" which showed that Palestinian Authority inaction against militant groups hostile to peacemaking was the real problem.
That could leave Prime Minister Ariel Sharon no choice but to draw security boundaries, once a period of a few months he has given to save the US-sponsored road map peace plan lapses, sources close to him said.
"This is only our default option. We remain committed to the `road map' to peace. But by refusing to fight terrorism, they are pushing us to adopt the very option they reject in the first place," said a senior political source.
The road map charts a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza by 2005.
Palestinians say a big barrier Israel is building in the West Bank is a bid to annex land and prejudge borders for their future state. Israel says the controversial barrier is needed to keep out suicide bombers.
Israeli soldiers opened fire on Friday on a group of protesters trying to breach the barrier near the West Bank city of Qalqiliya, wounding an Israeli and an American.
The incident broadcast on Israeli television stations sparked an outcry from several legislators who demanded an inquiry. The army said it would investigate the shooting, but a military source said soldiers were following arrest procedures.
Saeb Erekat, negotiations minister under moderate Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, said Thursday's attacks threatened a new spiral of vengeance-filled violence unless "de-escalation" steps were undertaken quickly.
He said US President George W. Bush should pay more attention to his road map and introduce ways of enforcing it, Egypt must intensify its effort to broker a mutual ceasefire and both sides must "commit themselves to meaningful negotiations".
Lieutenant-General Moshe Yaa-lon, Israel's army chief of staff, predicted to the daily Yedioth Ahronoth that the conflict with Palestinians would go on in some form for many years, but the peak of bloody confrontation had passed.
He said the largest militant group Hamas had held off on attacks in Israel for almost three months because of fears of destruction after repeated Israeli killings of their leaders.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS