mistake" amid reports that Palestinians disguised as women opened fire with automatic weapons at several hundred Israelis attending a memorial service, several sources said Monday, May 10.
The attack took place Sunday, May 9, at the site where Tali Hatuel and her four daughters were murdered a week ago "at point blank range on the Kissufim road in the Gaza Strip," reported the well informed International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (CEJ).
Reporters said families with babies hit the sand dunes the moment they heard the sound of gunfire that came from the nearby Palestinian town of Khan Yunis. Some people grabbed babies and ran to an armor plated ambulance while soldiers and armed civilians shot back, killing the attackers.
"The terrorists opened fire from a range of 300 meters," the ICEJ News Service quoted an unidentified Gaza military source as saying. "The troops were well prepared and we succeeded in killing the two terrorists before they could approach and pose a real danger.”
HUNDREDS OF MOURNERS
The mourners, mostly residents from Gaza’s coastal Gush Katif settlement bloc, had turned up in their hundreds to the scene of last week’s attack to hold a memorial service for the Hatuels. "At about 6.45 pm terrorists who had been hiding in nearby Palestinian homes some 300 meters from the road, started shooting," the ICEJ said.
On Monday, May 9, Israeli troops have demolished 13 houses in the area, leaving 75 Palestinians homeless, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported. "They left nothing for us," a member of the Abu Hadaf clan which occupied most of the buildings, was quoted as saying. "The bulldozers are uprooting trees, demolishing our houses," he reportedly said. The Israeli army said the houses had been destroyed because gunmen had used them for cover.
In addition the Israeli army has stepped up attacks against alleged Palestinian militants and launched several air strikes in recent weeks in which several people were killed or injured.
CONCERN ABOUT FUTURE
The violence came as Defense Minister Mofaz’s expressed concern about the future. "Gaza is not our birthright nor the land of our forefathers, and we will not be there within five years. The same process will happen in other places too," Mofaz told a gathering of the fourth annual convention of the Israel Bar Association in Eilat on Sunday, The Jerusalem Post newspaper reported Monday, May 9.
Deputy Education Minister Zvi Hendel reportedly attacked Mofaz’s statements, saying that the minister of defense was "encouraging terrorism." However Mofaz’s views are shared by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who cancelled a planned trip to the United States next week, saying he intended to focus his energies on patching together a new blueprint for withdrawing from the Gaza Strip after his party rejected his original plan.
The announcement was seen as a sign of Sharon’s determination to push ahead with his initiative after its overwhelming defeat in a May 2 referendum of his Likud party members. That vote, though non-binding, would make it difficult for many Likud ministers to support the plan. In addition the Israeli army has stepped up attacks against alleged Palestinian militants and launched several air strikes in recent weeks in which several people were killed or injured.
PALESTINIAN STATE POSTPONED?
United States President George W. Bush has said the tensions in the region have made it clear that the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state under the 2005 deadline envisaged in the internationally backed ‘road map’ peace plan is "unrealistic." He told Egyptian daily newspaper Al Ahramthis on Friday, May 7, that "the date has slipped some," while attributing the delay to increased violence and the replacement of Mahmoud Abbas as Palestinian prime minister.
"I think the timetable of 2005 is not as realistic as it was two years ago," Bush told the newspaper. "Nevertheless, I do think we ought to push hard, as fast as possible, to get a state in place," he said in a 40-minute interview with the paper.
