now wanted Yasser Arafat to be removed from the political scene, just as Israeli forces killed two militants and a bystander in Gaza.
Speaking in Parliament, Sharon stressed that the Palestinian leader "is the biggest obstacle to peace and therefore Israel is determined to bring about his removal from the political arena."
His emotionally charged speech came a day after Palestinian gunmen killed three Israeli soldiers in an ambush in the West Bank on Sunday, October 19.
That attack also prompted the Israeli Defense Forces to call up hundreds of reservists to serve in and near Palestinian territories due to what officials say is an escalating number of terror alerts.
JERUSALEM POST
Yet Sharon had told The Jerusalem Post newspaper last week that removing Yasser Arafat was "not a good idea" as it would likely harm him and his supporters, including Israelis, who have created a human chain around the Palestinian leader’s compound.
The Reuters news agency quoted Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat as saying the reversal of that decision and the speech of the prime minister was to "undermine peace" and the U.S. backed Roadmap to Peace.
Sharon’s remarks followed a flurry of Israeli air strikes around Palestinian-ruled Gaza City on Monday, October 20. In addition to those killed, at least 23 people were wounded, medics said, according to Reuters.
BLOODIEST AIR RAIDS
In the bloodiest of three air raids carried out in five hours, a helicopter-fired missile hit a mini-van stopped at a traffic light in densely populated Gaza City, sending pedestrians reportedly fleeing in panic.
Two Hamas militants, one of them identified as Khaled al-Masri, a senior member of the radical Islamic group, were reportedly burnt to death inside their vehicle, news reports said.
"We will avenge your blood," Hamas loudspeakers threatened as supporters, chanting "There is no alternative to bombings," carried the militants’ bodies in a funeral march, Reuters reporters observed.
Three hours earlier, an Israeli warplane bombed a building next to the home of Islamic Jihad leader Abdallah al-Shami in Gaza.
HAMAS WEAPONS
The army said it had not been aiming for Shami but instead had destroyed a Hamas weapons workshop next door after militants fired primitive rockets into southern Israel on Sunday.
Palestinian medics said 14 civilians, including four children, suffered light to moderate shrapnel injuries in the bombing raid near the home of the Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza, Reuters reported.
"Suddenly we heard a big boom and it was like an earthquake, everything started to fall on us," neighbor Rawda al-Jamal, told the news agency as he carried his wounded, one-year-old son in his arms.
