AUG 29, 2001
Violence Continues Despite Israeli Takeover of Palestinian Town
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Despite Israel's open-ended takeover of parts of a West Bank town, Palestinians fired mortars, machine guns and assault rifles from there at a nearby Jewish neighborhood overnight, drawing heavy Israeli return fire.
Elsewhere, three Palestinians and an Israeli were killed in separate shooting incidents early Wednesday. Among the dead were a Palestinian gunman, a Palestinian motorist police reported to have been shot by Jewish extremists, and an Israeli truck driver who was killed in a Palestinian shooting ambush.
The United States has demanded that Israel withdraw from the town of Beit Jalla and that the Palestinians hold their fire.
Israeli Education Minister Limor Livnat said Wednesday that troops could not pull out just yet, in light of renewed Palestinian shooting. "If the Palestinians continue with the escalation of the situation then we won't have any choice," Livnat told Israel army radio. "But I hope there will be another option and we won't have to expand our operation."
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat spoke by phone several times overnight, with Peres reportedly appealing to Arafat to order Beit Jalla gunmen to cease fire.
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo confirmed the phone calls, and said Arafat told Peres that Israel should pull out unconditionally.
Israeli troops, backed by tanks, took control of parts of Beit Jalla on Tuesday, to try to stop shooting from there at Gilo, a Jewish neighborhood built on land Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed to Jerusalem.
It marked the first time in 11 months of fighting that Israeli troops remained in Palestinian territory for more than just a few hours.
Israel seized several buildings, including a five-story Lutheran Church hostel under construction, and set up positions on rooftops.
Most of Beit Jalla was deserted Wednesday, with residents having left ahead of the Israeli incursion. Those who stayed were kept indoors by an around-the-clock curfew. Among those confined were 45 children, ages 6 to 16, who live in a church-run orphanage next to the hostel.
Despite the Israeli troop presence, Palestinians fired at Gilo overnight from Beit Jalla and the adjacent refugee camp of Aida. Eight Aida residents were lightly hurt by shrapnel, including a 1-year-old boy injured in the army, doctors said.
Late Tuesday, Palestinians fired three mortars at Gilo. One exploded in the yard of a community center, but no one was hurt. Gunmen also used machine guns for the first time, and one large-caliber bullet hit an Israel TV van in Gilo.
Palestinian security forces said Israeli troops returned fire with assault rifles and tank shells.
Also Wednesday, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on an Israeli army outpost in the southern Gaza Strip, near the Rafah refugee camp. A radical PLO faction, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, claimed responsibility, saying the shooting came in revenge for the killing of a senior PLO official, Mustafa Zibri, in a targeted Israeli missile attack earlier this week.
One of the gunmen was killed in the ensuing exchange of fire, Palestinian police said.
In an apparent response, 12 Israeli tanks took up positions alongside the main north-south road in Gaza, and cut off Rafah from the rest of Gaza, witnesses said.
Near the West Bank village of Hizme, east of Jerusalem, a Palestinian motorist was killed early Wednesday and two passengers were lightly hurt. Police said they suspected the attack was carried out by Israeli extremists taking revenge for deadly Palestinian shooting ambushes of Israeli motorists in the West Bank.
The third killing Wednesday took place near the West Bank town of Tulkarem. Palestinian witnesses said a 19-year-old drinking tea at his farm was killed by unprovoked Israeli fire. The army had no immediate comment.
Also Wednesday, an Israeli truck driver was killed in a shooting ambush west of the Palestinian town of Nablus, police said.
In 11 months of fighting, 594 people have died on the Palestinian side and 163 have died on the Israeli side.
Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company
