Suspected suicide bomber Muhammad Habashi"
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Thursday, 29 March, 2001, 16:58 GMT 17:58 UK
The suicide bombers can get right to their targets
By BBC News Online's Kate Milner
Such attacks are, according to analysts, planned meticulously, along the lines of a military operation.
In some cases, support teams transport the bomber by van or car to the location minutes before the detonation.
The Palestinian militant groups, which are Sunni Muslim, resemble the Lebanese Shia'a militant group Hezbollah in that they are acutely media-conscious and the timing and positioning of attacks are carefully considered to achieve the maximum public impact.
The explosives usually have a hand-pulled detonator rather than a button, because it is less likely to go off accidentally.
Promised rewards
Some media reports have speculated that suicide bombers take drugs before they go on their missions, but this would run contrary to the strict religious teachings they adhere to.
They are likely to be motivated by religious fervour.
According to Islamic tradition, he who gives his life for an Islamic cause will have his sins forgiven and a place reserved in paradise.
For many years, suicide attacks on Israelis have been seen by some Palestinians as just such acts of martyrdom.
Recruits are reassured by their organisation that their families will be looked after materially until they die, and there are charitable organisations that exist for this purpose.
Recruits are picked out from mosques, schools and religious institutions. They are likely to have shown particular dedication to the principles of Islam, and are singled out for deeper study.
Gradually, they get more involved in political issues, and are taught the rewards that will await them if they sacrifice their lives.
Eventually, many of them will volunteer for a suicide mission, hoping for greater glory.
They will spend less and less time with their families and devote themselves to religious study and spiritual preparation. They are sent out with just a day or two's notice on how and where to blow themselves up.
Faced with men who embrace their mission with such zeal, Israeli security forces will have to be extra vigilant to stop them.
A series of suicide bombings against Israelis have ignited fears in Israel of a new campaign - as threatened by Islamic militant groups.
In 1996, for example, Israel was paralysed by a series of suicide bombings that killed more than 50 people.
It is a measure of the depth of feeling among Palestinians - anger, resentment and in some cases despair - that there appears to be no shortage of recruits ready to die for a Palestinian state.
The suicide bombers are typically unmarried men in their late teens and 20s. They act in the belief that they will go straight to paradise, where they will get places of honour next to God.
Media-conscious
Most of the bombers are affiliated to the Palestinian militant groups Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
Israelis fear a new wave of attacks
|
Such attacks are, according to analysts, planned meticulously, along the lines of a military operation.
In some cases, support teams transport the bomber by van or car to the location minutes before the detonation.
The Palestinian militant groups, which are Sunni Muslim, resemble the Lebanese Shia'a militant group Hezbollah in that they are acutely media-conscious and the timing and positioning of attacks are carefully considered to achieve the maximum public impact.
The explosives usually have a hand-pulled detonator rather than a button, because it is less likely to go off accidentally.
Promised rewards
Some media reports have speculated that suicide bombers take drugs before they go on their missions, but this would run contrary to the strict religious teachings they adhere to.
They are likely to be motivated by religious fervour.
The bombers often target buses in Israel
|
For many years, suicide attacks on Israelis have been seen by some Palestinians as just such acts of martyrdom.
Recruits are reassured by their organisation that their families will be looked after materially until they die, and there are charitable organisations that exist for this purpose.
Recruits are picked out from mosques, schools and religious institutions. They are likely to have shown particular dedication to the principles of Islam, and are singled out for deeper study.
Gradually, they get more involved in political issues, and are taught the rewards that will await them if they sacrifice their lives.
Eventually, many of them will volunteer for a suicide mission, hoping for greater glory.
They will spend less and less time with their families and devote themselves to religious study and spiritual preparation. They are sent out with just a day or two's notice on how and where to blow themselves up.
Faced with men who embrace their mission with such zeal, Israeli security forces will have to be extra vigilant to stop them.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Wednesday, 29 August, 2001, 17:21 GMT 18:21 UK
By BBC News Online's Raffi Berg
Palestinian officials said Israeli tanks closed the two main roads connecting Rafah to the refugee camp of Khan Younis, isolating the town from the rest of Gaza.
The first incursion into an area under full Palestinian control occurred in mid-August when Israel sent tanks to occupy the West Bank city of Jenin.
The move was unprecedented since parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip were handed over to Palestinian rule under a peace deal in 1994 and provoked sharp international criticism.
Israel's closest ally, the United States, has said Israel needs to understand that such incursions only make matters worse.
Although Israel has frequently attacked Palestinian towns using helicopter gunships or shelled Palestinian positions from within Israeli territory, until recently it had rarely sent tanks into Palestinian territory.
It says its actions are to stop and deter Palestinians from using the areas as safe havens from which to launch attacks against Israel.
'Reinvasion'
The first time it happened, when Israeli tanks rolled into the Palestinian refugee camp of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip in April this year, marked an important psychological turning point in the conflict with the Palestinians.
Although Israel withdrew its troops after a few hours, it demonstrated that Israel was prepared to go back into territory, known as Area A, from which it had withdrawn under the Oslo peace accords.
The Palestinians said Israel's actions violated the peace deal and amounted to a reinvasion, while Israel said the operation was in self-defence after nearby Jewish settlements had come under fire from Palestinian gunmen.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said: "All those who carry out terrorist actions, help them or support them, must know they cannot live in peace even if they are in Area A."
The heaviest Israeli incursion into Palestinian territory since the start of the current uprising took place shortly afterwards, when troops went into Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip three times in four days.
The United States called the action "excessive and disproportionate".
Israel said it was in response to a Palestinian mortar attack on the Jewish settlement of Sderot - the deepest attack on a Jewish target within Israel since the start of the intifada.
Clearances
Incursions by the Israeli army into Palestinian territory have taken place at night under the cover of darkness.
Targets have frequently included buildings Israel claims have been used as cover by Palestinian gunmen, Palestinian police posts and bases belonging to various Palestinian security units.
The Palestinians, however, say civilians have also been victims, such as when, they claim, Israeli tanks and armoured bulldozers crossed into the Palestinian neighbourhood of Rafah in the Gaza Strip at one o'clock in the morning one night in July.
Palestinians say Israel demolished buildings housing 25 families.
Israel says it carried out a "clearance operation" because Palestinian militants were using the area to fire grenades at its security posts along the border.
Despite incurring international criticism when it mounts military action in Palestinian territory, Israel says it will continue to do whatever it deems necessary to protect the lives of its citizens.
Israel's decision to send troops into Beit Jala is one of a growing number of Israeli incursions into areas under Palestinian control.
The Israeli army also occupied Palestinian territory around the town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
The Israelis need to understand that incursions like this will not solve the security problems
 |
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher
|
The first incursion into an area under full Palestinian control occurred in mid-August when Israel sent tanks to occupy the West Bank city of Jenin.
 |
Israel's closest ally, the United States, has said Israel needs to understand that such incursions only make matters worse.
Although Israel has frequently attacked Palestinian towns using helicopter gunships or shelled Palestinian positions from within Israeli territory, until recently it had rarely sent tanks into Palestinian territory.
It says its actions are to stop and deter Palestinians from using the areas as safe havens from which to launch attacks against Israel.
'Reinvasion'
All those who carry out terrorist actions, help them or support them, must know they cannot live in peace
|
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
|
Although Israel withdrew its troops after a few hours, it demonstrated that Israel was prepared to go back into territory, known as Area A, from which it had withdrawn under the Oslo peace accords.
The Palestinians said Israel's actions violated the peace deal and amounted to a reinvasion, while Israel said the operation was in self-defence after nearby Jewish settlements had come under fire from Palestinian gunmen.
Israeli incursions happen under the cover of darkness
|
The heaviest Israeli incursion into Palestinian territory since the start of the current uprising took place shortly afterwards, when troops went into Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip three times in four days.
The United States called the action "excessive and disproportionate".
Israel said it was in response to a Palestinian mortar attack on the Jewish settlement of Sderot - the deepest attack on a Jewish target within Israel since the start of the intifada.
Clearances
Incursions by the Israeli army into Palestinian territory have taken place at night under the cover of darkness.
They started shelling our houses and the people started to escape, women and children
|
Mohammed
al-Hams, Rafah |
The Palestinians, however, say civilians have also been victims, such as when, they claim, Israeli tanks and armoured bulldozers crossed into the Palestinian neighbourhood of Rafah in the Gaza Strip at one o'clock in the morning one night in July.
Palestinians say Israel demolished buildings housing 25 families.
Israel says it carried out a "clearance operation" because Palestinian militants were using the area to fire grenades at its security posts along the border.
Despite incurring international criticism when it mounts military action in Palestinian territory, Israel says it will continue to do whatever it deems necessary to protect the lives of its citizens.
Friday, 10 August, 2001, 09:54 GMT 10:54 UK
 |
Can the cycle of violence be stopped?
The ceasefire negotiated by CIA Director George Tenet in mid-June appears to be effectively over. In its place a cycle of ever-escalating violence has developed.
On the ground the violence is going unchecked as each side responds to what it sees as provocation from the other.
Israel's assassination policy, what it calls "targeted killings", was an attempt to deal with the threat of suicide bombers and to stop attacks on soldiers and settlers in Palestinian areas.
The policy, which resulted in the death of several prominent Palestinian military and political leaders, appears to have provoked more retaliation - including a deadly suicide bomb attack in the centre of Jerusalem.
Calls for international intervention, which might break the cycle, have so far proved fruitless. The United States administration seems unwilling to get bogged down in the politics of the region.
Palestinians are still calling for international observers, but the Israeli Government is highly sceptical, and the international community is not pushing the idea.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres - relatively-speaking a dove - favours direct talks with the Palestinians.
Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, is still insisting that there must be a week without any violence before talks can begin. Most observers say this is not realistic.
What has happened to the Mitchell report?
The Mitchell report, which recommended ways of ending the months of violence, seemed to offer a framework for international efforts to end the violence.
The report, issued in May by a commission headed by former US Senator George Mitchell, called for a cooling-off period, confidence-building measures, an end to settlement building and resumption of peace talks. Both sides accepted the report, but interpreted it differently.
Given the high levels of violence, the Mitchell report, like the US-brokered ceasefire, seems an irrelevancy. Neither side appears willing or able to take the conciliatory steps the Mitchell report requires.
Is there still a danger of all-out war?
Israeli troop build-ups in the West Bank have reawakened suspicions that its army could be laying the groundwork for an all-out assault on the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Israel denies this. Israel maintains that actions including helicopter rocket attacks on Palestinian targets, tank fire and incursions into Palestinian territory are pre-emptive strikes against those it believes are planning to attack Israel.
Israel argues that soldiers under the control of the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, as well as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, are planning operations, bombings and military attacks, against Israelis.
Israeli officials hold Mr Arafat responsible for Palestinian violence, whatever its source.
Many Palestinians justify attacks on Israeli soldiers and settlers on Palestinian land as an attempt rid themselves of an occupier and oppressor. Some Palestinians, go further and support Islamic Jihad and Hamas attacks inside Israel. These are often condemned by the Palestinian Authority.
Despite this situation, it appears that both sides are trying to avoid a major conflagration.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has toned down personal, verbal attacks on Mr Arafat, and is resisting calls for the army and his hard-line supporters for Mr Arafat and the Palestinian Authority to be destroyed.
Mr Arafat has been making some efforts to rein in Hamas and Islamic Jihad. There have been recent clashes between Palestinian factions as a result of these effort.
Even the most militant Palestinians are aware that they are not likely to win a war between Israel and the Palestinians.
Wednesday, 1 August, 2001, 21:01 GMT 22:01 UK
Remains of a car hit by an Israeli rocket
By BBC News Online's Tarik Kafala
Palestinian officials say that about 60 individuals have been assassinated since the start of the current Palestinian uprising, or intifada, in September last year - several belonging to Yasser Arafat's political faction Fatah.
Israeli officials have at times boldly admitted that the policy exists and is being pursued vigorously.
"I can tell you unequivocally what the policy is," former deputy defence minister and current transport minister Ephraim Sneh said earlier this year.
"If anyone has committed or is planning to carry out terrorist attacks, he has to be hit. It is effective, precise, and just."
Recently officials have indicated that the Israeli army is being given a freer hand to carry out targeted killings of Palestinian activists.
The policy has come in for criticism domestically and internationally. Human rights organisation Amnesty International has called the assassinations extra judicial killings. The policy has even been challenged in the Israeli high court.
Long tradition
Israel has a long history of assassination operations targeting individuals.
Most famously, in 1987 in Tunisia, Israel assassinated Abu Jihad, the PLO's military leader and second in command.
In 1997, one special operation went humiliatingly wrong. Two Israeli agents were arrested in Jordan following an attempt to poison a leading member of Hamas.
Israeli military officials made it official policy in early November 1999, describing the plan as "initiated attacks" to stop members of Yasser Arafat's Fatah militia, known as Tanzim, from firing on Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza.
Friends become enemies
Israel has always claimed the right to selectively assassinate its enemies.
But the current strategy also targets its former partners in the peace process, who once co-operated with the Israeli security services in arresting Hamas and Islamic Jihad bombers.
In December, Israeli forces assassinated Thabet Thabet, a dentist, senior official in the West Bank health service, and a leading political figure in Fatah.
Massoud Ayad, one of Mr Arafat's bodyguards, was assassinated in February.
At the beginning of April, an Israeli helicopter gunship fired on a car in the Gaza Strip, killing a member of the militant Islamic Jihad group, Mohammed Abdel Al.
Israeli opposition
The Israeli left has argued that the assassination policy is gangster behaviour unbecoming of a government and against Israeli law.
Those opposing the policy say that many of those assassinated could have just as easily been arrested and tried.
Israel's high court in February heard an appeal against the policy of assassination, bought by Siham, the widow of Thabet Thabet. The court is yet to deliver a clear ruling, but the policy continues.
Amnesty International in February harshly condemned the policy.
"The use of state assassinations by Israel against Palestinian suspects is undermining the rule of law and fuelling the cycle of violence in the region," an Amnesty report said.
The Israeli Government of Ariel Sharon is, like its predecessors, committed to the policy of assassinating individuals who it believes pose a threat to its citizens.
I can tell you unequivocally what the policy is. If anyone has committed or is planning to carry out terrorist attacks, he has to be hit. It is effective, precise, and just
 |
Israeli Minister Ephraim Sneh
|
Israeli officials have at times boldly admitted that the policy exists and is being pursued vigorously.
"I can tell you unequivocally what the policy is," former deputy defence minister and current transport minister Ephraim Sneh said earlier this year.
"If anyone has committed or is planning to carry out terrorist attacks, he has to be hit. It is effective, precise, and just."
Recently officials have indicated that the Israeli army is being given a freer hand to carry out targeted killings of Palestinian activists.
The policy has come in for criticism domestically and internationally. Human rights organisation Amnesty International has called the assassinations extra judicial killings. The policy has even been challenged in the Israeli high court.
Long tradition
Israel has a long history of assassination operations targeting individuals.
Israeli gunship helicopters are the preferred means of assassination
|
In 1997, one special operation went humiliatingly wrong. Two Israeli agents were arrested in Jordan following an attempt to poison a leading member of Hamas.
Israeli military officials made it official policy in early November 1999, describing the plan as "initiated attacks" to stop members of Yasser Arafat's Fatah militia, known as Tanzim, from firing on Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza.
Friends become enemies
Israel has always claimed the right to selectively assassinate its enemies.
But the current strategy also targets its former partners in the peace process, who once co-operated with the Israeli security services in arresting Hamas and Islamic Jihad bombers.
The use of state assassinations by Israel against Palestinian suspects is undermining the rule of law and fuelling the cycle of violence in the region
|
Amnesty International
|
Massoud Ayad, one of Mr Arafat's bodyguards, was assassinated in February.
At the beginning of April, an Israeli helicopter gunship fired on a car in the Gaza Strip, killing a member of the militant Islamic Jihad group, Mohammed Abdel Al.
Israeli opposition
The Israeli left has argued that the assassination policy is gangster behaviour unbecoming of a government and against Israeli law.
Those opposing the policy say that many of those assassinated could have just as easily been arrested and tried.
Israel's high court in February heard an appeal against the policy of assassination, bought by Siham, the widow of Thabet Thabet. The court is yet to deliver a clear ruling, but the policy continues.
Amnesty International in February harshly condemned the policy.
"The use of state assassinations by Israel against Palestinian suspects is undermining the rule of law and fuelling the cycle of violence in the region," an Amnesty report said.
Monday, 20 August, 2001, 16:12 GMT 17:12 UK
Obstacles to sending Mid-East observers
Violence has continued despite several attempts to keep a ceasefire
As the UN Security Council debates the vexed issue of sending international observers to the Middle East, BBC News Online examines the background.
Israel has consistently opposed the deployment of such a force, viewing it as outside interference and arguing that it would complicate matters.
Both the UN and Washington have also indicated that a peacekeeping force would not be formed without Israeli backing.
Israeli objections
Israel is traditionally very suspicious of the UN. In Israeli eyes, it is tainted by the 1975 General Assembly resolution equating Zionism with racism. That resolution was revoked in 1991.
Indeed fresh moves to introduce Zionism on to the agenda at the UN racism conference in South Africa at the end of the month have also prompted protests from both the Israelis and the Americans.
From an Israeli perspective, this is reason enough to reject proposals for a UN peacekeeping force.
The proposal for an unarmed military observer force, rather than a UN peacekeeping force, has been raised separately by Russia, France and the United Kingdom since the start of the current violence.
Any observer force would be expected to monitor violence, the observance of the ceasefire and liase between Israeli security forces and the Palestinian police.
Precedent
But the presence of international observers would not necessarily bring an end to the violence.
For six years 150 unarmed European observers have been deployed in Hebron in the West Bank, where a small enclave is still occupied by Israel.
The observers were put in place after radical Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein stormed a mosque and killed 29 praying Palestinians in 1994.
They have done little to prevent recent regular clashes between Palestinians and settlers.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Deploying a team of observers to the Middle East has been suggested as a way of breaking the cycle of violence which has intensified since the Palestinian intifada began nearly a year ago.
The foreign ministers of the major Western industrialised nations and Russia have all said they support such a plan and it is something the Palestinians have been urging for months.
They have previously called on the United Nations Security Council to send a 2,000-strong force of UN military peacekeepers to protect Palestinian civilians.
Observers have been deployed in Hebron since a 1994 killing of 29 Palestinians
|
Both the UN and Washington have also indicated that a peacekeeping force would not be formed without Israeli backing.
Israeli objections
Israel is traditionally very suspicious of the UN. In Israeli eyes, it is tainted by the 1975 General Assembly resolution equating Zionism with racism. That resolution was revoked in 1991.
Indeed fresh moves to introduce Zionism on to the agenda at the UN racism conference in South Africa at the end of the month have also prompted protests from both the Israelis and the Americans.
From an Israeli perspective, this is reason enough to reject proposals for a UN peacekeeping force.
The proposal for an unarmed military observer force, rather than a UN peacekeeping force, has been raised separately by Russia, France and the United Kingdom since the start of the current violence.
Any observer force would be expected to monitor violence, the observance of the ceasefire and liase between Israeli security forces and the Palestinian police.
Precedent
But the presence of international observers would not necessarily bring an end to the violence.
For six years 150 unarmed European observers have been deployed in Hebron in the West Bank, where a small enclave is still occupied by Israel.
The observers were put in place after radical Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein stormed a mosque and killed 29 praying Palestinians in 1994.
They have done little to prevent recent regular clashes between Palestinians and settlers.
Sept. 10, 2001, ABC News, 9 Die in New Mideast Violence,
After a weekend of bloody violence, Israeli tanks and helicopters launched a round of retaliatory attacks on Palestinian security positions today.
A Palestinian security officer was killed near the West Bank town of Jenin today in an Israeli military retaliation for two suicide bomb attacks and a drive-by shooting over the weekend.
Five Israelis and three Arabs were killed in Sunday's attacks and several others were injured.
Although the attacks appeared to cast a shadow on plans for truce talks between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to be held sometime this week, both sides have indicated talks have not been ruled out.
"The strategy for peace continues," an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokeswoman told Reuters today.
First Israeli Arab Suspect
Security was tight across the region following Sunday's round of violence, the worst of which took place in the northern Israeli town of Naharia.
For the first time in a year since the current intifada began, an Israeli Arab was a suspect in a suicide bombing, which killed the bomber and three other Israelis. At least 40 people were wounded in the blast.
The attack took place at the busy Nahariya railway station during the start of the Israeli work week. Witnesses told Israeli media a bearded man bumped into a number of people at the station before a gift-wrapped box he was carrying exploded.
According to Israeli media reports, the suspect for the bombing was Muhammad Saker Habashi, an Israel citizen who once ran an unsuccessful campaign for mayor in the northern Israeli village of Abu Snan.
But a statement released by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said Habashi's identity had yet to be confirmed with forensic tests.
Security Problems
A possible suicide bomb attack by an Israeli citizen was expected to make security in the region even more difficult. Amid threats to introduce a buffer zone along the 1967 borders separating Israel from the West Bank, Israel's security Cabinet met to discuss latest security measures today.
Palestinians say such zones would make their lives intolerable.
In separate incidents, a suicide bomb exploded near a bus at a busy intersection near the central Israeli town of Netanya on Sunday, killing three Israelis and the bomber.
The attack followed a drive-by shooting in the Jordan Valley when a car with a Palestinian number plate overtook a minibus transporting Jewish settlers to school. The bus driver and a teacher died in the attack, Israeli police said.
Talking About a Truce
The latest attacks saw a flurry of diplomatic activity in the international community as Arab foreign ministers, who were meeting for two-day talks in Cairo today, renewed the call for international observers to monitor the situation.
Speaking on NBC television on Sunday, U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said the violence was "really senseless" and called upon the Palestinians to cease the violence.
But the Palestinian Authority has rejected allegations that it was doing nothing to prevent such attacks. In a statement released today, the Palestinian Authority rejected accusations it was behind the new attacks and condemned all assaults on Israeli or Palestinian civilians. It also condemned today's reprisals by the Israeli military.
However Palestinian militants, including members of the militant group Hamas have said they will continue their attacks until Israel ends its occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
ABCNEWS' Nathan Thomas in London contributed to this report.
========================================================
September 10, 2001, USA Today, Suicide bomb dismays Arab citizens of Israel, by Matthew Kalman
DEIR HANNA, Israel - The shock waves of Sunday's suicide bombing in a train station in northern Israel were being felt Monday by the million or more Palestinian Arabs who are Israeli citizens.
Initial reports said the terrorist who blew himself up in Nahariya, killing three off-duty Israeli soldiers and injuring dozens more, was 48-year-old Muhammed Shaker Habashi, from the village of Abu Snan, about 30 miles from here in the Galilee, the northern part of Israel.
Israeli Arab leaders and organizations lined up Monday to denounce the attack. "It's very serious," said Shawki Khatib, chairman of the Israeli Arab Leadership Monitoring Committee, which represents Israel's Arab citizens. "We condemn such people, and we spit them out - not only those who carry out such attacks, but even those who think in this direction."
Khatib and other Israeli Arab leaders warn against concluding that Sunday's attack indicated a new extremist tendency within their community. "This does not indicate a trend and it is not a turning point," said Abdel Malik Dahamshe, one of 10 Arab members elected to the Knesset, Israel's 120-seat parliament. "We have proven ourselves for 53 years. We don't need to prove afresh twice each day that we are citizens."
Israeli observers said Sunday's suicide bombing has generated greater concern throughout the country that the attack by one of their own will add a dangerous new dimension to the 11-month conflict. Writing in Monday's daily Ma'ariv, Israeli commentator Chemi Shalev said, "For much of the public, a suicide bomber from among the Israeli Arabs is a nightmare that has come true."
Relations between Israel's Jewish majority and Arab minority have always been complex. From the founding of the Jewish state in 1948 until 1966, Israeli Arabs lived under military rule. The Druse, members of a religion that grew out of Islam centuries ago but that Muslims no longer recognize as part of Islam, make up about 10% of Israeli Arabs. Christians represent 12%-15% of the Arab citizens. All have long complained of discrimination by the Jewish majority. Despite recent attempts to bridge the gap, Arab Israeli communities suffer from a deficiency of health, welfare, education and transport services.
Palestinian activists had been largely unsuccessful, until lately, in their attempts to exploit the feelings of alienation among Israeli Arabs. Despite feelings of solidarity with the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza, who often are relatives, Israeli Arabs have been absent from any active role in the recent intifada, or uprising, that has claimed more than 700 lives, most of them Palestinians.
However, with the rise of the extreme religious Islamic movement in the past decade, these feelings have shifted toward political activity on behalf of the Palestinian struggle for independence.
Fundamentalist Muslim groups are trying to enlist young Palestinians to fight and even sacrifice themselves for their cause: an independent Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel. For the first time, observers say, it appears their message is reaching inside Israel to Arab citizens.
"This confers legitimacy on those on the Jewish side who recently began to claim that Israeli Arabs are a fifth column," said Elie Rekhess, a professor of Israeli Arab politics at Tel Aviv University, alluding to a group within a society that helps the enemy.
Thirteen Israeli Arabs were shot dead by Israeli police during a wave of riots in northern Israel last October. The unrest died down after a few days. Since then, Israeli Arabs have been largely quiet, especially after the Israeli government set up an official commission of inquiry into last year's riots. In Deir Hanna, Sunday's suicide bombing hit especially hard. The village's 15,000 Muslims, Christians and Druse were still reeling from the arrests Thursday of four local 16-year-olds on suspicion of planting a bomb at a major intersection 3 miles away.
Israeli security officials say they believe the teens were recruited by a Fatah group loyal to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the West Bank town of Jenin. Two of the teens have confessed, Israeli police and their Israeli Arab lawyer say.
But Rasmiyeh Khatib, whose nephew is among the teen suspects under arrest, said Israeli Arabs are good citizens. "We are loyal to the state. We don't want problems. My nephew is a good boy who was led astray. I'm sure he didn't know what he was doing. They played with his head."
In Abu Snan, home to the suspected suicide bomber Habashi, there was outrage that the village could should have produced a terrorist. Most residents are Druse. The highest-ranking Druse soldier in the country, Maj. Gen. Yusef Mishlev, comes from the village.
Sheik Mohanna, the local Druse leader whose son died fighting for the Israeli army in Lebanon, expressed the shock of his community. "Abu Snan has given its best sons for the sake of the country. We are in trauma here in the village. Such people have no place amongst us, none."
Matthew Kalman is the editor in chief of THE JERUSALEM REPORT and a sought-after commentator and public speaker in Israel and abroad. He has been a foreign correspondent and filmmaker based in Jerusalem since 1998. He has reported for TIME, Newsweek, the Boston Globe, London Sunday Times, USA Today, Toronto Globe & Mail, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Daily News, the Chronicle of Higher Education and the London Daily Mail. His television reporting includes PBS in the United States, Channel 4 News UK and CTV in Canada. He is a frequent contributor to radio news programmes in Canada and Britain. Matthew graduated from Cambridge University in 1983. He has an MA (Cantab) in History.
September 10, 2001, Jerusalem Post, Five killed as terror hits nationwide. First Israeli Arab suicide bomber strikes at Nahariya train station, by Margot Dudkevitch, Arieh O'Sullivan, contributed to this report.
Five Israelis were murdered and more than 100 wounded - most suffering from shock - in three terror attacks that rocked the nation yesterday. Suicide bombers struck Nahariya and the Beit Lid junction near Netanya, following a fatal drive-by shooting in the Jordan Valley.
For the first time, an Israeli Arab perpetrated one of the suicide bombings, in Nahariya, after being recruited by Hamas in the West Bank.
Israel accused Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat of instigating the attacks at a time when when preparations are under way to organize a meeting between him and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
In retaliation, IAF Apache helicopters targeted several Palestinian security installations and Fatah Tanzim headquarters in the West Bank. Palestinians evacuated all security installations and other institutions affiliated with Fatah and the PA in the West Bank and Gaza, fearing a harsh reprisal.
Ya'acov Hatsav, 41, and Sima Franco, 24, were murdered early yesterday morning 300 meters south of the Adam junction. A car overtook a minibus transporting teachers to the Geffanim junior high school in the Jordan Valley, and its occupants were sprayed with gunfire, The Palestinians fled toward Nablus.
Hatsav, who was driving, and Franco, a kindergarten teacher who was sitting next to him, were killed instantly. Three other teachers - Yael Klein and Shlomit Amiton, of Shedmot Mehola, and Yochi David, of Beit She'an - all suffered light-to-moderate wounds.
Klein, whose condition was described as moderate, was airlifted to Hadassah-University Hospital in Jerusalem's Ein Kerem, suffering from gunshots in the back and shoulder. David and Amiton, wounded lightly by fragments, were taken to Ha'emek Hospital in Afula.
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
Two-and-a-half hours later, three Jerusalemites - Sgt. Daniel Yifrah, 19, Yigal Goldstein, 47, and Morel Derfel - were killed and 94 wounded in a suicide bombing at the entrance to the Nahariya train station. Mahmoud Shaker Habishi, of the Western Galilee village of Abu Sna'an, blew himself up after waiting for passengers to disembark from a train from Tel Aviv.
Among the wounded were a one-week-old baby and several residents of Habishi's village. The wounded were taken to Nahariya Government Hospital. Last night, 17 of them remained in the hospital, none with life-threatening wounds.
The Islamic Movement condemned the attack in Nahariya and claimed that Habishi was not a member.
Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. Pini Malka, the owner of the cafeteria at the station, said his life had been saved even though he was only five meters from Habishi when he detonated his bomb.
'I went to get change from my daughter, who works nearby, and as I returned I saw a man holding a large cardboard box and a bag. It looked like the box was about to fall, and several people went to help him. Then he detonated the bomb.'
Malka said he was thrown into the air and landed 20 meters away. 'I got up and raced back to see how my daughter was. My restaurant was totally destroyed. I took my daughter and raced away from the area in case there was an additional explosion,' he told reporters in the hospital, where he was treated for light wounds.
At 1:15, a suicide bomber exploded two bombs in his car as he waited for a traffic light to change at the Beit Lid junction. His car snapped in two from the force of the blast, in which 13 Israelis were wounded, the majority motorists stopped near the bomber's car. The explosion set fire to an empty bus and a number of vehicles.
For hours afterward, one of the busiest highways in the country was closed until the flames were put out and police sappers were able to dismantle mortar shells and other explosives in the car that failed to detonate.
Police believe the suicide bomber had planned the attack further along the highway near an IDF hitchhiking station or in Netanya, but detonated his bombs prematurely after spotting a Prisons Service van behind his car.
Deputy Sharon District police chief Cmdr. David Franco said police believe the bomber came from Tulkarm. The license plates on his car came from a vehicle stolen in Petah Tikva.
Magen David medic Amit Dilon told The Jerusalem Post that he arrived minutes after the explosion and saw heavy smoke billowing from vehicles at the intersection. The terrorist, he said, was lying near his car, and he and others assisted motorists to leave the area. The wounded were taken to Laniado Hospital in Netanya and Hillel Yaffe Hospital in Hadera.
Yesterday afternoon, helicopters hit the Fatah office in Ramallah and a Palestinian Police position near Kabatiya, south of Jenin, the army said. Earlier, helicopters struck at a Fatah headquarters and a Force 17 post in El-Bireh, reportedly causing heavy damage.
Other gunships were dispatched to Jericho, where they fired rockets into a storeroom belonging to Palestinian Authority General Intelligence, setting it alight.
Tanks also fired at a Palestinian roadblock near the village of Mesanen al-Shabiyeh, east of Nablus.
Five Palestinians were reportedly lightly wounded by shrapnel in the Jericho attack, but there were no reported casualties in the other attacks, because most of the buildings were abandoned in fear of a reprisal.
'The targets hit were continually used to plan and carry out violent terror attacks,' an IDF statement said.
The defense establishment held the PA responsible for the terror, since it is allowed to operate in its territory and the PA has done nothing to stop it.
The IDF said that the PA had also ignored repeated requests to arrest terrorists on their way to carry out attacks.
Bloody Sunday
8:15 a.m.
Adam Junction, Jordan Valley. Two Israelis killed and three wounded in drive-by shooting. Palestinians spray minibus with bullets, flee to Nablus. KILLED: Driver Ya'acov (Kobi) Hatsav, 41, Moshav Hamra, kindergarten teacher Sima Franco, 24, Beit She'an. WOUNDED: three Israeliteachers.
10:40 a.m.
Nahariya train station. Israeli Arab Mahmoud Shaker Habishi detonates explosives strapped to hisbody near entrance. KILLED: Sgt. Daniel Yifrah, Jerusalem, Morel Derfel, Mevaseret Zion, Yigal Goldstein, Jerusalem. WOUNDED: 94, among them soldiers, children, residents ofbomber's village.
1:15 p.m.
Beit Lid junction, Route 4 near Netanya. Suicide car bomber detonates explosives as he waits fortraffic light. Second explosion moments later. WOUNDED: Thirteen Israelis. Vehicles and bus set afire. Area closedto traffic until sappers approach remains of car bomb, dismantle two mortars and other explosives.
In Memoriam
Driver Ya'acov (Kobi) Hatsav, 41
Sima Franco, 24
Daniel Yifrah, 19
Morel Derfel, 45
Yigal Goldstein, 47
September 10, 2001, USA Today, Suicide bomb dismays Arab citizens of Israel, by Matthew Kalman
DEIR HANNA, Israel - The shock waves of Sunday's suicide bombing in a train station in northern Israel were being felt Monday by the million or more Palestinian Arabs who are Israeli citizens.
Initial reports said the terrorist who blew himself up in Nahariya, killing three off-duty Israeli soldiers and injuring dozens more, was 48-year-old Muhammed Shaker Habashi, from the village of Abu Snan, about 30 miles from here in the Galilee, the northern part of Israel.
Israeli Arab leaders and organizations lined up Monday to denounce the attack. "It's very serious," said Shawki Khatib, chairman of the Israeli Arab Leadership Monitoring Committee, which represents Israel's Arab citizens. "We condemn such people, and we spit them out - not only those who carry out such attacks, but even those who think in this direction."
Khatib and other Israeli Arab leaders warn against concluding that Sunday's attack indicated a new extremist tendency within their community. "This does not indicate a trend and it is not a turning point," said Abdel Malik Dahamshe, one of 10 Arab members elected to the Knesset, Israel's 120-seat parliament. "We have proven ourselves for 53 years. We don't need to prove afresh twice each day that we are citizens."
Israeli observers said Sunday's suicide bombing has generated greater concern throughout the country that the attack by one of their own will add a dangerous new dimension to the 11-month conflict. Writing in Monday's daily Ma'ariv, Israeli commentator Chemi Shalev said, "For much of the public, a suicide bomber from among the Israeli Arabs is a nightmare that has come true."
Relations between Israel's Jewish majority and Arab minority have always been complex. From the founding of the Jewish state in 1948 until 1966, Israeli Arabs lived under military rule. The Druse, members of a religion that grew out of Islam centuries ago but that Muslims no longer recognize as part of Islam, make up about 10% of Israeli Arabs. Christians represent 12%-15% of the Arab citizens. All have long complained of discrimination by the Jewish majority. Despite recent attempts to bridge the gap, Arab Israeli communities suffer from a deficiency of health, welfare, education and transport services.
Palestinian activists had been largely unsuccessful, until lately, in their attempts to exploit the feelings of alienation among Israeli Arabs. Despite feelings of solidarity with the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza, who often are relatives, Israeli Arabs have been absent from any active role in the recent intifada, or uprising, that has claimed more than 700 lives, most of them Palestinians.
However, with the rise of the extreme religious Islamic movement in the past decade, these feelings have shifted toward political activity on behalf of the Palestinian struggle for independence.
Fundamentalist Muslim groups are trying to enlist young Palestinians to fight and even sacrifice themselves for their cause: an independent Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel. For the first time, observers say, it appears their message is reaching inside Israel to Arab citizens.
"This confers legitimacy on those on the Jewish side who recently began to claim that Israeli Arabs are a fifth column," said Elie Rekhess, a professor of Israeli Arab politics at Tel Aviv University, alluding to a group within a society that helps the enemy.
Thirteen Israeli Arabs were shot dead by Israeli police during a wave of riots in northern Israel last October. The unrest died down after a few days. Since then, Israeli Arabs have been largely quiet, especially after the Israeli government set up an official commission of inquiry into last year's riots. In Deir Hanna, Sunday's suicide bombing hit especially hard. The village's 15,000 Muslims, Christians and Druse were still reeling from the arrests Thursday of four local 16-year-olds on suspicion of planting a bomb at a major intersection 3 miles away.
Israeli security officials say they believe the teens were recruited by a Fatah group loyal to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the West Bank town of Jenin. Two of the teens have confessed, Israeli police and their Israeli Arab lawyer say.
But Rasmiyeh Khatib, whose nephew is among the teen suspects under arrest, said Israeli Arabs are good citizens. "We are loyal to the state. We don't want problems. My nephew is a good boy who was led astray. I'm sure he didn't know what he was doing. They played with his head."
In Abu Snan, home to the suspected suicide bomber Habashi, there was outrage that the village could should have produced a terrorist. Most residents are Druse. The highest-ranking Druse soldier in the country, Maj. Gen. Yusef Mishlev, comes from the village.
Sheik Mohanna, the local Druse leader whose son died fighting for the Israeli army in Lebanon, expressed the shock of his community. "Abu Snan has given its best sons for the sake of the country. We are in trauma here in the village. Such people have no place amongst us, none."
Matthew Kalman is the editor in chief of THE JERUSALEM REPORT and a sought-after commentator and public speaker in Israel and abroad. He has been a foreign correspondent and filmmaker based in Jerusalem since 1998. He has reported for TIME, Newsweek, the Boston Globe, London Sunday Times, USA Today, Toronto Globe & Mail, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Daily News, the Chronicle of Higher Education and the London Daily Mail. His television reporting includes PBS in the United States, Channel 4 News UK and CTV in Canada. He is a frequent contributor to radio news programmes in Canada and Britain. Matthew graduated from Cambridge University in 1983. He has an MA (Cantab) in History.
September 10, 2001, Jerusalem Post, Five killed as terror hits nationwide. First Israeli Arab suicide bomber strikes at Nahariya train station, by Margot Dudkevitch, Arieh O'Sullivan, contributed to this report.
Five Israelis were murdered and more than 100 wounded - most suffering from shock - in three terror attacks that rocked the nation yesterday. Suicide bombers struck Nahariya and the Beit Lid junction near Netanya, following a fatal drive-by shooting in the Jordan Valley.
For the first time, an Israeli Arab perpetrated one of the suicide bombings, in Nahariya, after being recruited by Hamas in the West Bank.
Israel accused Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat of instigating the attacks at a time when when preparations are under way to organize a meeting between him and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
In retaliation, IAF Apache helicopters targeted several Palestinian security installations and Fatah Tanzim headquarters in the West Bank. Palestinians evacuated all security installations and other institutions affiliated with Fatah and the PA in the West Bank and Gaza, fearing a harsh reprisal.
Ya'acov Hatsav, 41, and Sima Franco, 24, were murdered early yesterday morning 300 meters south of the Adam junction. A car overtook a minibus transporting teachers to the Geffanim junior high school in the Jordan Valley, and its occupants were sprayed with gunfire, The Palestinians fled toward Nablus.
Hatsav, who was driving, and Franco, a kindergarten teacher who was sitting next to him, were killed instantly. Three other teachers - Yael Klein and Shlomit Amiton, of Shedmot Mehola, and Yochi David, of Beit She'an - all suffered light-to-moderate wounds.
Klein, whose condition was described as moderate, was airlifted to Hadassah-University Hospital in Jerusalem's Ein Kerem, suffering from gunshots in the back and shoulder. David and Amiton, wounded lightly by fragments, were taken to Ha'emek Hospital in Afula.
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
Two-and-a-half hours later, three Jerusalemites - Sgt. Daniel Yifrah, 19, Yigal Goldstein, 47, and Morel Derfel - were killed and 94 wounded in a suicide bombing at the entrance to the Nahariya train station. Mahmoud Shaker Habishi, of the Western Galilee village of Abu Sna'an, blew himself up after waiting for passengers to disembark from a train from Tel Aviv.
Among the wounded were a one-week-old baby and several residents of Habishi's village. The wounded were taken to Nahariya Government Hospital. Last night, 17 of them remained in the hospital, none with life-threatening wounds.
The Islamic Movement condemned the attack in Nahariya and claimed that Habishi was not a member.
Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. Pini Malka, the owner of the cafeteria at the station, said his life had been saved even though he was only five meters from Habishi when he detonated his bomb.
'I went to get change from my daughter, who works nearby, and as I returned I saw a man holding a large cardboard box and a bag. It looked like the box was about to fall, and several people went to help him. Then he detonated the bomb.'
Malka said he was thrown into the air and landed 20 meters away. 'I got up and raced back to see how my daughter was. My restaurant was totally destroyed. I took my daughter and raced away from the area in case there was an additional explosion,' he told reporters in the hospital, where he was treated for light wounds.
At 1:15, a suicide bomber exploded two bombs in his car as he waited for a traffic light to change at the Beit Lid junction. His car snapped in two from the force of the blast, in which 13 Israelis were wounded, the majority motorists stopped near the bomber's car. The explosion set fire to an empty bus and a number of vehicles.
For hours afterward, one of the busiest highways in the country was closed until the flames were put out and police sappers were able to dismantle mortar shells and other explosives in the car that failed to detonate.
Police believe the suicide bomber had planned the attack further along the highway near an IDF hitchhiking station or in Netanya, but detonated his bombs prematurely after spotting a Prisons Service van behind his car.
Deputy Sharon District police chief Cmdr. David Franco said police believe the bomber came from Tulkarm. The license plates on his car came from a vehicle stolen in Petah Tikva.
Magen David medic Amit Dilon told The Jerusalem Post that he arrived minutes after the explosion and saw heavy smoke billowing from vehicles at the intersection. The terrorist, he said, was lying near his car, and he and others assisted motorists to leave the area. The wounded were taken to Laniado Hospital in Netanya and Hillel Yaffe Hospital in Hadera.
Yesterday afternoon, helicopters hit the Fatah office in Ramallah and a Palestinian Police position near Kabatiya, south of Jenin, the army said. Earlier, helicopters struck at a Fatah headquarters and a Force 17 post in El-Bireh, reportedly causing heavy damage.
Other gunships were dispatched to Jericho, where they fired rockets into a storeroom belonging to Palestinian Authority General Intelligence, setting it alight.
Tanks also fired at a Palestinian roadblock near the village of Mesanen al-Shabiyeh, east of Nablus.
Five Palestinians were reportedly lightly wounded by shrapnel in the Jericho attack, but there were no reported casualties in the other attacks, because most of the buildings were abandoned in fear of a reprisal.
'The targets hit were continually used to plan and carry out violent terror attacks,' an IDF statement said.
The defense establishment held the PA responsible for the terror, since it is allowed to operate in its territory and the PA has done nothing to stop it.
The IDF said that the PA had also ignored repeated requests to arrest terrorists on their way to carry out attacks.
Bloody Sunday
8:15 a.m.
Adam Junction, Jordan Valley. Two Israelis killed and three wounded in drive-by shooting. Palestinians spray minibus with bullets, flee to Nablus. KILLED: Driver Ya'acov (Kobi) Hatsav, 41, Moshav Hamra, kindergarten teacher Sima Franco, 24, Beit She'an. WOUNDED: three Israeliteachers.
10:40 a.m.
Nahariya train station. Israeli Arab Mahmoud Shaker Habishi detonates explosives strapped to hisbody near entrance. KILLED: Sgt. Daniel Yifrah, Jerusalem, Morel Derfel, Mevaseret Zion, Yigal Goldstein, Jerusalem. WOUNDED: 94, among them soldiers, children, residents ofbomber's village.
1:15 p.m.
Beit Lid junction, Route 4 near Netanya. Suicide car bomber detonates explosives as he waits fortraffic light. Second explosion moments later. WOUNDED: Thirteen Israelis. Vehicles and bus set afire. Area closedto traffic until sappers approach remains of car bomb, dismantle two mortars and other explosives.
In Memoriam
Driver Ya'acov (Kobi) Hatsav, 41
Sima Franco, 24
Daniel Yifrah, 19
Morel Derfel, 45
Yigal Goldstein, 47
________________________________________________________________________________
September 11, 2001, StAugustine.com / Associated Press,
Israel ready to hold high-level talks with Palestinians
Associated Press
Published Tuesday,
JERUSALEM -- Israel and the Palestinians said they were willing to hold high-level truce talks on Tuesday, despite a series of deadly weekend attacks by Arab militants, but remained at odds over where the meetings should take place.
Even if Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat settle the disagreement over the venue -- Egypt or the Erez crossing near the Gaza Strip -- there is little expectation they will produce a cease-fire. Israel radio said negotiations over the venue were continuing Monday night.
Previous U.S.-led truce efforts have failed to stop nearly a year of fighting and the Palestinians suspect Peres has only a limited mandate, while Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon remains distrustful of Arafat's intentions.
Also, Arafat's planned meeting Wednesday in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar Assad, a staunch opponent of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, was seen as a possible signal the Palestinians are hardening their stance toward Israel.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said he was trying to help renew Israeli-Palestinian security talks and that he spoke with Peres by telephone three times in recent days.
Late Monday, Israeli tanks, infantry and heavy earth-moving equipment massed in Israel across from the West Bank town of Jenin, witnesses said. Palestinian security officials said Israeli tanks were converging on the town, at the northern edge of the West Bank, from four directions. The Israeli military refused to comment.
Two Israelis were seriously wounded in a Palestinian shooting attack early Tuesday near the West Bank town of Tulkarem, police and army radio said.
In Sunday's attacks -- two suicide bombings and a roadside ambush -- five Israeli Jews and three Arab militants were killed, and dozens of Israelis were wounded. In one bombing, in the northern Israeli town of Nahariya, an Israeli Arab blew himself up near a train station, killing himself and three Israeli Jews.
The assailant, Muhammed Shaker Habashi, 48, a mosque preacher from Israel's northern Galilee region, forced Israelis to contemplate a new nightmare scenario -- suicide bombings by its own citizens. Habashi was the first suicide bomber from Israel's million-member Arab minority.
In a statement, Israel's government charged that Habashi crossed into Jenin, but the Palestinian Authoritiy ignored Israeli requests to arrest him there. The Palestinians denied that he was in the West Bank.
''The unfolding terrorist operation which the Palestinians organized yesterday was horrifying, not just because of the slaughter it caused ... but because of the frightening picture it painted of terrorism which is like an octopus, with countless arms,'' commentator Hemi Shalev wrote in the Maariv daily.
The Islamic militant group Hamas said Monday it had recruited Habashi and said his attack in Nahariya proved Hamas can strike deep inside Israel, despite Israeli closures.
In a videotape released by Hamas and played on Israeli TV stations, Habashi is shown reading a statement saying he wold carry out the bombing to exact revenge ''for all the Palestinians killed since 1948,'' when Israel was established.
Israeli security officials have warned there are growing ties between Israeli Arabs and Islamic militant groups in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in recent months.
_______________________________________________________________________________
September 11, 2001, New York Daily News, Surround militant town as leaders argue over truce talks, by Danielle Haas in Jerusalem and Corky Siemaszko in New York, Daily News Writers with News Wire Services,
While Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres dickered over where to hold truce talks today, Palestinians on the West Bank braced for an Israeli attack.
Forty-two Israeli tanks and dozens of armored personnel carriers and earth movers massed yesterday outside Jenin, a city widely known as a training ground for suicide bombers.
The Palestinian Authority evacuated its offices, and townspeople - heeding calls from the mosques - erected roadblocks and gathered stones to hurl.
Witnesses said some Israeli tanks began shelling Jenin and a nearby refugee camp during the early morning hours today, knocking out electricity.
The Israeli forces did not go into the town, witnesses said, and Israel radio reported that the troops planned to close off the town without entering.
Meanwhile, two Israelis were killed early today in a Palestinian shooting attack near the West Bank town of Tulkarem, Israeli Army radio reported.The ominous developments cast more doubt on whether truce talks will end the 11-month struggle that has left hundreds of Arabs and Jews dead.
It still wasn't clear where - or if - Peres and Arafat would meet. The Israelis want to talk at the Erez Crossing near the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians want to talk in Egypt, which has been their most vocal supporter of late.
Even if that issue is resolved, there is little expectation that a Peres-Arafat meeting will make much progress toward a ceasefire.
"There have been dozens such meetings with no results, and from a skeptical point of view, it's doubtful anything will come of this," said Israeli political analyst Gerald Steinberg.
The Palestinians said Israel has to tackle key issues, such as construction of Jewish settlements in Palestinian areas, if it wants to break the impasse.
"If [Peres] just wants to talk about a ceasefire, there is no point," said Palestinian cabinet minister Ziad Abu Zayyad. "Israel needs to start implementing past agreements. The mood in the Palestinian street is very militant."
The new violence came a day after an Israeli Arab suicide bomber killed three people and injured hundreds more at a crowded train station. The assailant, Muhammed Shaker Habashi, 48, was the first suicide bomber from Israel's million-member Arab minority.
The Islamic militant group Hamas said it had recruited Habashi and that his attack in Nahariya proved Hamas can strike deep inside Israel.
In a videotape released by Hamas and played on Israeli TV stations, Habashi is shown reading a statement saying he would carry out the bombing to exact revenge "for all the Palestinians killed since 1948," when Israel was established.
Israeli security forces began suspecting Habashi last month and went to his home village of Abu Snan to arrest him, but he slipped away, presumably to the West Bank, police said. Israel says it asked the Palestinian Authority to arrest Habashi, to no avail.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Thursday, 13 September, 2001, BBC, 15:50, GMT 16:50 UK, Tension grips West Bank towns,
Palestinians reported heavy fighting in Jenin and Jericho
Israeli troops are surrounding the West Bank towns of Jericho and Jenin following a night of fighting in both areas.
Palestinian officials said Israeli forces had killed three Palestinians and wounded 11 in overnight clashes in Jenin.
Israeli tanks had also rolled into the Palestinian-controlled town the previous night. At least seven Palestinians were reported killed in the earlier clashes.
Despite the violence, there are signs that the long anticipated meeting between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres may take place in the next few days.
Mr Peres has said there is now a tentative agreement on where and when to hold the talks.
The news follows a telephone call to both sides by US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday.
But BBC Jerusalem correspondent Caroline Hawley says that even if the talks go ahead in the current poisoned atmosphere, there is absolutely no guarantee of success.
Heavy fighting
Palestinian officials said Israeli forces attacked a local government building in Jenin on Thursday.
Expected to meet Arafat soon
Heavy fighting was also reported further south in Jericho, where Palestinian officials said some 20 Israeli tanks accompanied by bulldozers made an incursion.
Loudspeakers on mosques called people out to defend the town against the invading Israeli forces, witnesses said.
The Israeli army said it had no comment on the reported incursion into Jericho.
"There is fierce resistance to the Israelis. The tanks are moving towards Palestinian headquarters, where all the Palestinian security offices are located," said Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat, a Jericho resident.
Mr Erekat drew a connection between the incursions and the terror attacks in New York and Washington on Tuesday that destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon.
Israel says Jenin was a breeding ground for suicide bombers.
"The Israelis are using the tragedy of the events in New York and Washington, feeling that the attention of the world is elsewhere," he said.
It was not immediately clear what the purpose of the latest Israeli incursion was, but the presence of the bulldozers indicated that they intended to tear down Palestinian structures.
The main official Palestinian buildings in the town are an old military base used as police headquarters and a prison.
Suicide bombers
Israel says Jenin has been a breeding ground for suicide bombers.
The Israeli prime minister's office called the town "a hornet's nest" from where it said at least six suicide bombing missions had been carried out since the Palestinian uprising began last September.
Israel says a suicide bomber who blew himself up in the Israeli coastal town of Nahariya on Sunday, killing three Israelis, had been trained by a Hamas cell based in Jenin.
Monday, 10 September, 2001, 15:00 GMT 16:00 UK
Israel's shock at Israeli bomber
An Israeli soldier who suffered from shock in the bomb attack in Naharia
Israelis fear that they face an enemy within
By Caroline Hawley in Jerusalem
Israelis - both Jews and Arabs - are busy digesting the implications of Sunday's suicide bombing in the coastal town of Naharia, which police say was carried out, for the first time, by an Israeli Arab.
They have identified him from papers he was carrying as Muhammad Habashi, a middle-aged man from the Galilee village of Abu Snan.
The Arab minority, in its tragic situation is torn between its desire to be an inseparable part of the state of Israel and its desire to be an inseparable part of the Palestinian nation
Yedioth Ahronoth
As the authorities await conclusive proof of his identity from DNA tests, many are questioning what could have led an Israeli citizen to blow himself up at a crowded
Israeli Arabs are the Palestinians who remained in Israel as most of their compatriots fled in the fighting that followed the country's establishment in 1948.
They now make up a million-strong community.
But although they carry Israeli citizenship, they complain that they are treated as second-class citizens and that their towns and villages receive significantly less government funding than Jewish municipalities.
Muhammad Habashi is described by Yedioth Ahronoth as an "anomaly"
Their resentment against Israel, and their identification with the Palestinian cause, increased during the first Palestinian uprising, and, again, during the current conflict.
The killing, by Israeli troops, of 13 Israeli Arabs demonstrating in support of the uprising last October further inflamed tensions.
Israeli security officials say that over the past few months some Israeli Arabs have been involved in attacks on Israelis.
But, as an editorial in the mass circulation newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth points out, most Israeli Arabs have not participated in the Palestinian uprising "despite the years of privation, despite the terribly high poverty rate, despite the clear discrimination that is directed by the state of Israel itself."
Everyone here is upset - everyone condemns it
Resident of Abu Snan
The paper describes Muhammad Habashi, who was a member of Israel's Islamic movement, as an "anomaly," and argues that his suicide attack should not cause Israelis to panic.
"The Arab minority, in its tragic situation is torn between its desire to be an inseparable part of the state of Israel and its desire to be an inseparable part of
the Palestinian nation," Yedioth writes.
"Thus far, this conflict is resolved every day and every hour on the side of Israeli citizenship."
The reaction of most Israeli Arabs to the attack bears the argument out.
"Everyone here is upset," one resident of Abu Snan told Israel radio. "Every one condemns it."
But the bombing has increased Israelis' fears that they could face an "enemy within" that would be extremely difficult to guard against.
Israel takes stringent security measures against the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza.
But it would be almost impossible for it to justify imposing similar restrictions on the movement of its own citizens.
Sunday, September 9, 2001, BBC News, In pictures: Mid-East bloodshed, 23:01 GMT 00:01 UK
A new wave of violence rocks the Middle East with two Palestinian suicide bomb attacks in Israel and shooting incidents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The deadliest attack was in the northern coastal town of Nahariya, where three Israelis were killed and 10 people injured when a suicide bomber targeted the train station.
A few hours later, a second suicide bomber exploded his device near a bus at the busy Beit Lid intersection, near the central city of Netanya, injuring three.
The shock of the attack began to sink in? No, it is shame manifesting itself.
As the bodies of those killed were removed...
And the grim task of collecting the flesh of the victims for burial began
| The second Palestinian intifada or uprising broke out at the end of September 2000 and is named after the Jerusalem mosque complex where the violence began. Frustrations that years of the negotiation had failed to deliver a Palestinian state were intensified by the collapse of the Camp David summit in July 2000. Ariel Sharon, then the leader of Israel's opposition, paid a visit to the site in East Jerusalem known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, and to Jews as Temple Mount, which houses the al-Aqsa mosque - and frustration boiled over into violence.The timeline below highlights the key events. 2000
28 September: Ariel Sharon's visit to the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount - against the background of the failure of the peace process - provides one of the sparks that ignites a cycle of violence. 30 September: In one of the enduring images of the conflict 12-year-old Muhammad Durrah is killed during a gunbattle between Israeli troops and Palestinians in the Gaza strip, kindling Palestinian anger about the growing number of children killed by Israeli forces. The army initially apologises, but later casts doubt on whether its forces killed the boy. 17 October: The Sharm al-Sheikh agreement, brokered by President Clinton, aims to end the upsurge in violence. It breaks down almost immediately. 2001 6 February: Ariel Sharon elected prime minister of Israel.
1 June: Suicide bomb attack on a disco in Tel Aviv leaves 21 people dead and more than 60 others injured. Islamic Jihad says it carried out the attack. 9 August: Fifteen people are killed and about 90 others are injured in a suicide attack on a busy restaurant in the heart of Jerusalem. Hamas says it carried out the attack. 27 August: Israel assassinates People's Liberation Front for Palestine leader Abu Ali Mustafa in a missile strike. 17 October: The PFLP assassinates Israel's tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi. 2 December: A Palestinian suicide bomber blows up a bus in the northern coastal city of Haifa, killing 15 people and wounding more than 100 others. 2002 8 March: The bloodiest day of the intifada so far sees 45 people killed, mostly Palestinians. 27 March: In the Israeli resort of Netanya, a bomber blows himself up at a hotel, killing 28 Israelis celebrating Passover. The attack claimed by the armed wing of Hamas was the deadliest since the beginning of the uprising. 29 March: Israel begins a massive military assault on the West Bank. Yasser Arafat's Ramallah headquarters are targeted and Palestinian militants take refuge in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Heavy fighting goes on for days in the northern West Bank town of Jenin. 7 May: Suicide bomber attacks a social club in the town of Rishon Letzion, killing 16 people and injuring more than 50. The attack is claimed by the armed wing of Hamas. 16 June: Israel begins construction of its West Bank security barrier, a 640-kilometre (440-mile) structure designed to keep Palestinian suicide bombers out of Israel. 18 June: A suicide bomber kills himself and 19 civilians in an attack on a bus in southern Jerusalem. 22 July:: Israel kills Hamas military commander Salah Shehada with aircraft bomb dropped on his Gaza housing block; 18 other residents are also killed by the blast. 2003 5 January: At least 23 people are killed and 100 wounded when two suicide attackers set off charges in crowded streets during rush hour in Tel Aviv. 19 March: Mahmoud Abbas agrees to become the first Palestinian prime minister. 30 April: The Quartet group - the EU, UN, Russia and the US - launch the roadmap peace plan. It is a phased programme for ending conflict culminating in the creation of an independent Palestinian state, but the neither side keeps to its timetable. 11 June: Sixteen people are killed in a bus bomb in Jerusalem, in the first suicide attack since US President Bush's peace summit a week before. It follows an Israeli air strike on 10 June aimed at killing Hamas leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi in Gaza. 27 June: Palestinian militants announce an agreement with the Palestinian Authority to temporarily halt attacks on Israelis. The "hudna" lasts seven weeks.
9 September: Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas resigns after clashing with Yasser Arafat over reform of security services. 4 October: A suicide bomber blows herself up in a packed Haifa restaurant, killing at least 19 people including three children. 13 October: The Geneva Accords, an alternative peace-plan negotiated by prominent Israelis and Palestinians, is unveiled. The plan is quickly rejected by Israel and Palestinian militants. 2004 29 January: A Palestinian suicide bomber kills 10 in an attack on a west Jerusalem bus.
22 March: Israel assassinates Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, spiritual leader of Hamas, in an air strike. 17 May: Israel assassinates Hamas leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi a missile strike. 13 May: Following the killing of 13 soldiers by militants in Gaza, Israel launches a nine-day incursion into the Rafah refugee camp, leaving at least 40 Palestinians dead. 9 July: The International Court of Justice rules that the West Bank barrier is illegal and that construction must be halted. 31 August: Sixteen people are killed in suicide bombings on two buses in the Israeli town of Beersheba. 27 October: Israeli legislators vote in favour of a controversial plan to withdraw Jewish settlers from Gaza. 29 October: Yasser Arafat is airlifted from his West Bank compound in Ramallah to a military hospital in Paris. 11 November: Arafat dies in France aged 75. Israel says his death may be a turning point for peace in the Middle East. Mahmoud Abbas is elected head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). 2005 9 January: Palestinians elect Mahmoud Abbas to succeed Yasser Arafat as chairman of the Palestinian Authority. 10 January: Israel's parliament backs a new coalition government, giving Ariel Sharon a firm basis to implement his Gaza pullout plan. 14 January: Israel seals off the Gaza Strip after six Israelis are killed in an attack by Palestinian militants at a major crossing point. 15 January: Mahmoud Abbas is sworn in as the new president of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank town of Ramallah. He uses his inauguration speech to call for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants. 21 January: Hundreds of Palestinian Authority police take up positions in the northern Gaza Strip to stop militants firing rockets at Israeli targets. 24 January: Following a week of talks between Mr Abbas and militant leaders, the groups say they have agreed to suspend attacks on Israel. 3 February: Israel approves a plan to free hundreds of jailed Palestinians and withdraw forces from West Bank cities. 8 February: After a summit at the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh, Mahmoud Abbas and Ariel Sharon declare a truce. Both express hopes that the informal ceasefire will lead to a new era of hope for the region.10 February: Hamas militants fire dozens of mortars and rockets at the Gush Katif settlement after the organisation said it was not bound by the ceasefire. The attacks prompt Mr Abbas to order a security crackdown and sack senior security officials. | ||||
http://galton.uchicago.edu/~amit/MIDE/bombings1.html
2002
10 April A suicide attack on a bus travelling near the Israeli city of Haifa kills at least eight people and injures dozens more.
1 April: A car bomb explodes in West Jerusalem killing the bomber and critically injuring a policeman inspecting the vehicle.
31 March: Bomber attacks restaurant in Haifa, northern Israel, killing himself and 14 Israeli Jews and Arabs. On the same day, another bomber kills himself and wounds four people
in an attack on an office for paramedics at the Jewish settlement of Efrat, south of Bethlehem.
30 March: A suicide attack on a Tel Aviv restaurant leaves the bomber dead and 30 Israelis wounded.
29 March: A woman bomber kills herself and two others at a Jerusalem supermarket.
27 March: In the Israeli resort of Netanya, a bomber blows himself up at a hotel, killing 22 Israelis celebrating Passover.
26 March: Three injured in car bomb blast near a shopping centre in Jerusalem.
22 March: Bomber kills himself and wounds an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint at Salem, on Israel's border with the West Bank.
21 March: At least two people killed and more than 20 injured in suspected suicide bomb attack in the centre of West Jerusalem.
20 March: Seven people killed in a suicide bomb attack on a bus carrying mainly Arab labourers near the northern town of Umm el-Fahem.
9 March: At least 11 people killed and 50 injured in suicide bomb attack on busy cafe in west Jerusalem, near the official residence of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
5 March: One person killed and several others injured in suicide bomb attack on a bus at Afula central bus station.
2 March: Nine people killed including two babies, and 57 injured after suicide bomb attack in an ultra-Orthodox area of Jerusalem.
18 February: Car bomber detonates device at a checkpoint, killing himself and a policeman.
16 February: Two teenagers killed and 30 people injured in suicide bomb attack on a Pizzeria in Karnei Shomron.
15 February: Three soldiers killed after powerful roadside bomb destroys an Israeli tank.
27 January: Two people - one a female suicide bomber - die in an attack in a busy shopping area of central Jerusalem.
2001
2 December: A Palestinian suicide bomber blows up a bus in the northern coastal city of Haifa, killing 15 people and wounding more than 100 others.
1 December: Twelve people, including two suicide bombers, are killed in an attack on a Jerusalem shopping centre.
29 November: At least four people die in a suicide bomb attack on a bus in the northern town of Hadera. Islamic Jihad claim responsibility.
8 November: A Palestinian suicide bomber blows himself up in the West Bank town of Baka al-Sharkieh injuring two Israeli border guards.
9 September: Three people are killed in a suicide bombing at a crowded railway station in the town of Naharia. The bomber is the first Israeli Arab to carry out such an attack.
4 September: Bomber disguised as a bearded ultra-Orthodox Jew injures 13 when he blows himself up in central Jerusalem.
7 October: A suicide bomber kills himself and an Israeli kibbutz member at the wheel of a car in the northern town of Beit Shean.
12 August: Suicide bomb attack on restaurant near Haifa. Bomber dies, up to 20 people injured.
9 August: Fifteen people are killed and about 90 others injured in a suicide attack on a busy restaurant in the heart of Jerusalem. Hamas admits responsibility.
2 June: Suicide bomb attack on a disco in Tel Aviv leaves 21 people dead and more than 60 others injured. Islamic Jihad claim responsibility.
28 March: Three people killed and several others severely injured in a nail bomb attack near a bus stop close to the central Israeli town of Kfar Saba. Hamas admits responsibility.
1 March: One person is killed and nine injured in an explosion in northern Israel. A group calling itself The Battalions of Return says it was responsible.
8 February: Two car bomb explosions in the heart of the ultra-orthodox area of West Jerusalem. No-one was killed in the first explosion since the election of right-wing Likud leader
Ariel Sharon.
1 January: Car bomb explodes in an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood of west Jerusalem. One woman injured.
2000
28 December: At least one bomb explodes on a bus near Tel Aviv, wounding 13 Israelis.
22 November: Two Israelis killed and 55 wounded by a car bomb that explodes during the rush-hour in northern town of Hadera.
2 November: Two Israelis killed by a powerful car bomb at central Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market, a frequent target of attacks.
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack - which came more than a month after Palestinians began a new uprising against Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza
following the collapse of peace talks.
1998
6 November: A car bomb at the same market kills two suicide bombers from Islamic Jihad and wounds 21.
1997
4 September: Explosion in west Jerusalem kills eight, including three bombers, and wounds more than 170.
30 July: Two militants blow themselves up in the Mahane Yehuda market, killing themselves and 16 shoppers.
31 March: Suicide bomber kills himself and three women at a Tel Aviv cafe.
1996
4 March: Tel Aviv bomb kills 13.
3 March: Suicide bomb on a Jerusalem bus kills 19.
25 February: Suicide bombings in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv killed 26. Militant Hamas group claims responsibility.
1995
21 August: Bomb on a Jerusalem bus kills five and wounds 69.
24 July: Unidentified suicide bomber kills six passengers and himself on a bus outside Tel Aviv.
9 April: Islamic Jihad suicide bomber attacks military convoy in Gaza, killing seven soldiers and an American tourist.
22 January: Two Islamic Jihad militants blow themselves up amid a group of soldiers near Netanya, killing 21.
1994
11 November: Islamic Jihad militant sets off bomb near Netzarim settlement in Gaza, killing three officers.
19 October: Hamas militant sets off bomb killing 23 on a Tel Aviv bus.
13 April: Hamas bomb kills five and injures 30 in Hadera north of Tel Aviv.
6 April: Hamas car bomb in Afula kills eight and wounds 44. Hamas says attack was revenge for killing of 29 Palestinians by a settler.
25 February: Massacre in the Hebron Mosque by Baruch Goldstein.
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