in the Gaza Strip Tuesday, October 14, to close what was described as "tunnels" to smuggle arms from nearby Egypt.
Witnesses said at least six Palestinians were injured in the camp where eight Palestinians, including two children, were killed several days earlier in a similar Israeli operation against militants, the Voice of America (VOA) reported.
The latest crack-down came amid concern among Zionist Christians about a left wing peace plan that would divide Jerusalem, and give control over the Temple Mount and the Armenian, Christian and Moslem quarters of the Old City to Palestinians.
SYRIA
These developments are closely followed in neighboring Syria, where Government officials have not ruled out military actions against the Jewish state following an Israeli air strike earlier this month against in an alleged terrorist camp nearby Damascus.
Under the deal, known as the Swiss Initiative, Palestinians would also give up their claim to a right of return to Israel, while Israel would retain about 75 percent of the settlements with the other 100,000 residents presumably being resettled.
The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ), which organizes a pro-Israel Feast of Tabernacles attended by up to 4,000 Christians, said its supporters applauded Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s rejection of the controversial peace plan.
CAPITAL
Apparently often interrupted by laud applause and cheers, Sharon told his Christian audience that Jerusalem was "the capital of the Jewish people – for the last 3,000 years, the united and undivided capital of the state of Israel, forever," during a Jerusalem rally.
He added that "Jerusalem is a city of peace," reported the ICEJ News Service, quoting the prime minister. Former Labor Prime Minister Ehud Barak also dismissed the deal as "delusional," despite being hammered out by members from his own party, reports said.
Sharon stressed it is his historic responsibility to protect the increasingly isolated Jewish state.
COMPROMISES
"Israel is not ready to make any compromises and will not make any concessions when it comes to the security of Israel and its citizens," he added "as the audience nearly drowned him out with cheering," the ICEJ said in a statement send to BosNewsLife.
Sharon also assured Christians gathered at the Feast that Israel would ensure that all holy sites would be protected as long as they are under Israeli control.
He thanked Christians for their support saying that with "many challenges ahead…your friendship is important to us".
PROVOCATION
However Palestinian officials have accused Sharon of provocation saying his actions are aimed at war and not at peace.
His public visit to the Temple Mount three years ago has been interpreted by critics as the last spark that reignited the Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, which killed an estimated 3,000 Israelis and Palestinians.
However the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem made it a point to especially remember the victims of Palestinian suicide attacks during the Feast of Tabernacles. It honored 50 drivers of Egged, the world’s largest Israeli bus company with a 4,100- strong bus fleet.
DEVASTATION
Since the current conflict began in September 2000, Palestinian militants have reportedly targeted more than 200 Egged buses with bullets, stones, Molotov cocktails, roadside booby traps, explosive- laden cars and human bodies wired for devastation.
Over 20 of those assaults were suicide bombings killing about 110 people and wounding over 500.
"It gives us a great feeling that somebody outside appreciates us," the ICEJ News Service quoted driver Ben Shushan as telling the Christians who had given him and his colleagues a standing ovation during a weekend rally in Jerusalem.
"We get up for work every day knowing we may never come back," he said.
