| |
 |
Palestinian, Israeli killed despite ceasefire
|
A US-BROKERED ceasefire failed in its initial hours yesterday to halt Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed despite efforts on both sides to cement the truce designed to end eight months of violence.
A Palestinian gunman and an Israeli were killed in a West Bank shoot-out near Jerusalem yesterday just after Israel withdrew tanks from a flashpoint in Gaza in a first step to implement US CIA Director George Tenet's ceasefire plan.
Late on Wednesday, a Palestinian was killed — possibly by an Israeli — in a drive-by shooting on a West Bank road. Palestinians fired mortar bombs at a Jewish settlement in Gaza causing no casualties yesterday, the army said.
The violence followed the start at 3pm local time (8pm Beijing Time) on Wednesday of the ceasefire, which Israeli and Palestinian security officials vowed to make a maximum effort to implement.
In the shooting yesterday, an Israeli police spokesman said a Palestinian gunman fired on an Israeli car, wounding one of the passengers, who shot back and killed the attacker.
A second Israeli in the car was shot dead in the initial Palestinian gunfire, the Israeli army said.
A Reuters TV cameraman in Gaza said Israeli tanks had pulled out near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim and that Palestinian traffic was flowing freely in the flashpoint area.
Jibril Rajoub, the Palestinian Preventive Security chief in the West Bank, said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat gave orders to abide by the ceasefire.
“This is definitely a positive step in the right direction and this has to encourage us all,” Rajoub said, speaking in Hebrew to Israel's Army Radio.
“We agree to stop the fire on every Israeli citizen, it doesn't matter who he is and it doesn't matter where he is,” Rajoub said in an interview taped before the West Bank shooting.
Palestinian factions had said their uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza would continue against Jewish settlers and soldiers regardless of a cease-fire.
Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Israel Radio: “We need to save human lives whether it's Israeli or Palestinian.”
“It could be a turning point and we can make it be a turning point. Let's concentrate our mutual efforts,” he added.
Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who gave new ceasefire orders to his forces late on Wednesday, said it would take time for the Palestinians to restore calm on the ground.
In the meantime, I am feeling good, satisfied. The ceasefire began yesterday at three in the afternoon... up to now everything passed peacefully although there were some shooting incidents and an attack,” he told Israel's Army Radio.
Israeli police said they were investigating the killing of the Palestinian man in the West Bank ambush late on Wednesday and were also looking into the possibility Jews were responsible for the killing.
|
|
|
|
