- JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A Palestinian
suicide bombing that killed four people in Israel and a helicopter strike
which killed a top Islamic militant and four other Palestinians dealt a
double blow to hopes of reviving a Middle East peace plan.
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- The Israeli government said Thursday's attack outside
Tel Aviv, the first big suicide bombing in almost three months, showed
Palestinians were ever ready to strike in the heart of the Jewish state.
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- Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie called for total
calm to help a beleaguered U.S.-led "road map" for peace, but
militants vowed bloody revenge for the helicopter strike that killed the
commander of Islamic Jihad's military wing.
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- "The assassination of the chief leader of the Jerusalem
Brigades will not pass without a deterrent, a strong and an earthquake-like
response," an Islamic Jihad statement said.
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- The attacks, within less than an hour of each other,
shattered a period of relative calm that had rekindled hopes of negotiations
between Israelis and Palestinians on a peace plan already stalled by a
cycle of bloodshed and revenge.
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- The militant Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
claimed responsibility for the bombing, calling it revenge for Israeli
raids last week on the West Bank city of Nablus.
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- Israeli police said the Palestinian bomber killed three
women and one man at a bus stop on the highway out of the coastal metropolis
of Tel Aviv. In the last previous big suicide attack, on October 24, a
bomber killed 23 people.
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- ISRAEL SEALS OFF WEST BANK, GAZA
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- An official in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
office said the latest bombing was "another indication that the Palestinian
Authority's terrorist infrastructure is always just one step away from
lashing out at Israeli civilians."
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- Israeli authorities say the spell of calm is an illusion
and that they has foiled some two dozen would-be suicide bombers recently.
After Thursday's bombing, it stepped up an already tight blockade on the
West Bank and Gaza.
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- A military spokeswoman said the army would decide on
Friday how to allow out hundreds of pilgrims who have flocked to the West
Bank city of Bethlehem for Christmas.
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- Israel's defense minister said Meqled Hmaid was killed
in a missile strike in Gaza was because he was planning a "mega terror
attack." One other militant died in the attack. Three civilians were
killed, including a 15-year-old boy, medics said.
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- Militant factions have so far rebuffed efforts by Egypt
to secure a cease-fire with Israel and revive the U.S.-backed "road
map" meant to lead to a Palestinian state by 2005.
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- Condemning both Thursday's attacks, Palestinian premier
Qurie called for "immediate resumption of the road map, including
the implementation of mutual obligations, the first of which is stopping
the cycle of violence."
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- Contacts have been building to arrange a summit between
Qurie and Sharon, but the Palestinians shelved the last meeting to discuss
preparations after an Israeli raid in the Gaza Strip left nine dead on
Tuesday.
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- Sharon has said he is committed to the peace plan, but
has warned that if it fails he will take unilateral separation steps that
would cost Palestinians land they want for a state.
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- The Palestinian news agency quoted President Yasser Arafat
as saying Israeli military raids, the building of a barrier in the West
Bank and closure of the road between Jerusalem and Bethlehem showed the
Israelis "do not want peace." Previous 1| 2 © Reuters 2003.
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