alleged involvement in a Tel Aviv suicide attack that prompted an Israeli army raid in which a dozen Palestinians and a journalist died.
Officers detained two men and two women in Derbyshire and another woman in nearby Nottinghamshire on Friday, Scotland Yard said.
At least three Israelis were killed in the explosion Wednesday, April 30, at Mike’s Place, a Tel Aviv bar. Israeli police said the attack was carried out by Asif Hanif, 21, from the London suburb of Hounslow. They said Omar Khan Sharif, 27, of Derby in central England, fled when his bomb failed to detonate.
The arrests came shortly after news emerged that Israeli troops shot and killed British journalist James Miller who was filming the demolishing of houses in the Gaza Strip’s Rafah refugee camp as part of a documentary about Palestinian children.
"CROSS FIRE"
Military officials said he was a victim of "cross fire", but witnesses claimed he was directly shot at by Israeli troops.
His death came two weeks after cameraman Nazeh Darwazeh of Associated Press Television News was shot and killed while covering skirmishes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus. In addition several young peace activists were killed or wounded in recent weeks.
While the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has denied it targets journalists, the military says it can not guarantee the safety of reporters. Dozens of journalists have been hurt since the Palestinian uprising re-erupted in 2000.
Meanwhile a dozen Palestinians killed in the latest Israeli raid have been buried, amid emotional scenes that turned into demonstrations against the new Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas who has denounced violence and terrorism, reports said.
SET-BACK
The latest violence was seen as a set-back for the American backed "roadmap" for Middle East peace which U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell discussed Saturday, May 3, with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus on the first of what will be two trips to the region.
Powell said he hopes Syrian authorities will support U.S. peace efforts and recognize the "changed strategic context" in the region with the fall of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and the advent of a reformist Palestinian cabinet.
"Our goal remains the same: ultimately to bring into being a Palestinian state, and at the same time to work with Syria and Lebanon to make sure that those tracks do not appear to be neglected. They’re not neglected even though they are only touched on, and not dealt with in detail in the road map," he said.
POSSIBLE SANCTIONS
The Voice of America (VOA) network quoted him as saying that the U.S. could introduce anti-terrorism sanctions if Syria refuses to cease its support for rejectionist Palestinian factions based in Damascus and for anti-Israel Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.
He stressed military actions against Syria "were not on the table," for now as he was "to pursue diplomacy". But Powell made clear that "the President always has a full range of political, economic, diplomatic and military options to pursue foreign policy objectives."
The official Syrian media say the change in the international situation will not push Syria to make compromises on its land and rights, a reference to Israel’s occupation since 1967 of the strategic Golan Heights, VOA reported.
This isn’t good or bad. It’s just the way of things. Nothing stays the same.
An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.