- "Sharon is deliberately trying to provoke attacks
so he can tell the world: Look at the terrorism. But who does the terrorism
benefit?"
-
- Nablus Search Fails To Track Down Alleged Master Bomber
-
- NABLUS -- In a three-week
occupation of the biggest Palestinian city the Israeli army has killed
19 people, wrecked buildings and confined tens of thousands to their homes
in a futile search for the leader of "the heart of the terror networks".
-
- Before Christmas soldiers flooded Nablus and the neighbouring
refugee camp of Balata in pursuit of the leaders of al-Aqsa martyrs brigades
responsible for organising dozens of suicide bombings. Top of their list
was Naif Sharekh, the brigades commander in the city.
-
- Soldiers brandished Mr Sharekh's picture and demanded
to know his whereabouts. His wife was paraded in a jeep through the casbah
and forced to call over a megaphone for her husband to surrender.
-
- In Balata the search focused on three al-Aqsa brigades
leaders. Soldiers again brandished pictures and threatened anyone hiding
the men. None was found.
-
- "They wound up killing all these people and they
didn't get any of the ones they were really looking for," said Taysir
Naserallah, head of Yasser Arafat's Fatah organisation in Nablus. "Naif
Sharekh is still out there. That has provided people with satisfaction
for all their misery."
-
- The Israeli army commander in Nablus, who declines to
be named, said the raid on the city was prompted by intelligence that three
or four suicide bombers were preparing to leave to attack Israelis.
-
- "Nablus is the hottest and most dangerous town.
Most of the suicide bombers are in Nablus," he said.
-
- The army said the Christmas Day suicide bomb that killed
four people near Tel Aviv proved its point. The Palestinians said that
attack came after the raid on Nablus began. There had been no bombings
for almost three months.
-
- The Israelis have killed nearly 400 Palestinians in Nablus
during the present intifada, many of them armed men. The latest include
three teenagers who were shot stoning troops or dropping concrete from
buildings, according to the army. Among them was Amjad al-Masri, 15, who
was killed on Saturday.
-
- One of Amjad's cousins, Mohammed al-Masri, 18, helped
to carry the boy's body at the funeral. As the procession went through
town, an army sniper shot Mohammed in the head. He died in hospital. The
army said he was killed while breaking the curfew.
-
- Abdul al-Qassa is the most recent to die. Soldiers surrounded
his house on Tuesday in search for Ibrahim Attari, a member of al-Aqsa,
and ordered everyone out.
-
- The army said it shot Mr Attari dead as he stepped out
of the house because he was seen to have had a gun. It said soldiers spotted
Mr Qassa behind a bush and killed him because they thought he might have
a gun. He was not armed.
-
- But witnesses say that after Mr Attari was shot, Mr Qassa
was dragged forward by the soldiers and confronted with the wanted man.
-
- "The soldiers kept asking him: 'Who is that man?
What is he doing in your house?'" said one of Mr Qassa's neighbours,
Amra Sadija. "He kept saying: 'I don't know him.'"
-
- Mr Qassa's brother Mustafa alleges that an Israeli soldier
then shot him in cold blood.
-
- "When my brother wouldn't identify Ibrahim they
shot him in the mouth. They left him there to bleed to death and arrested
all of us," he said.
-
- Nablus is used to hardship. It endured more than six
months of curfew in 2002. But its mayor, Ghassan Shakah, says the killing
of unarmed people and the brutality of the searches only bolsters support
for the likes of Naif Sharekh.
-
- He suspects that Israel's prime minister knows it. "Sharon
is deliberately trying to provoke attacks so he can tell the world: Look
at the terrorism. But who does the terrorism benefit?"
-
- - The Israeli soldier arrested for shooting the British
peace activist Tom Hurndall, who was left brain dead, had been charged
two months ago with smoking cannabis while serving in Gaza.
-
- The unnamed soldier admitted lying about the circumstances
in which he shot Mr Hurndall, who was trying to protect children.
-
- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
-
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1119104,00.html
|
