Chronological Review of Events/July 2002 - DPR review

Division for Palestinian Rights

Chronological Review of Events Relating to the

Question of Palestine

MONTHLY MEDIA MONITORING REVIEW

July 2002

Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer told Israel Public Radio that out of “34 illegal settlement points” a list of 21 had been drawn up for evacuation, and 11 had been cleared the previous day, adding that he hoped another 10 would be cleared within two or three weeks. Mr. Ben-Eliezer said that lists were based on figures compiled by Israeli military authorities. Prime Minister Sharon, speaking later in the day to the Likud Knesset faction, expressed support for the dismantling of unauthorized settlement outposts in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, while praising the settlement movement, calling the settlers “the pioneers of the third millennium.” The day before, Deputy Defence Minister Dalia Rabin-Pelossof said settlers had agreed to take down the first 10 designated outposts by 1 July, and another 10 in coming days. “If they do not, I understand from the Defence Minister that he has signaled he will evacuate them by force,” she said. (Ha’aretz)

A new survey conducted by Peace Now revealed that since the elections of February 2001 some 44 new settlement sites had been established in the West Bank. Nine of these new outposts were erected in the period March – June 2002. Tzali Reshef of Peace Now said “The Government is systematically violating its commitment to the Israeli public as written in the coalition agreement that formed the basis for the National Unity Government. The creation of new settlements harms Israel's security and unnecessarily endangers still more IDF soldiers and citizens. It is shameful that the Defence Ministry continues to speak of taking down settlements, when every day new ones crop up and IDF soldiers continue to endanger their lives for this irresponsible endeavor.” (Peace Now press release of 29 June 2002; detailed listing (incl. date of discovery, no. of structures and exact Position) at http://www.peace-now.org/NewSettlementSitesJun2002.rtf)

Over 100 lawmakers from the Greek ruling party called on EU to demand that Israel free West Bank Fatah leader and Palestinian Council Member Marwan Barghouti (AP, Ha’aretz)

Israeli security forces arrested 14 Palestinians in the West Bank, including two Hamas members, the IDF and Israel Public Radio said. Separately, two Palestinian Reuters photographers, arrested on 30 June in Nablus, were released from detention. (AFP, Ha’aretz)

“If we want free elections, we accept the result of the free elections, whether we like it or not,” European Commission President Romano Prodi told a news conference in Copenhagen, while Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, whose country assumed the rotating EU Presidency, said “We will of course negotiate with the leader elected by the Palestinians.” Spanish Defence Minister Federico Trillo, whose country completed its Presidency term, said in Saudi Arabia that his country believed the elected leader of the Palestinian people should be respected. Russian Foreign Minister Ivanov said Russia had no plans to end its contacts with Chairman Arafat despite US calls for a change of Palestinian leadership. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

The PA called upon the Palestinian residents in the West Bank for civil disobedience and a boycott of the Israeli Government in all fields, PA Cabinet Secretary Ahmed Abdel Rahman said in a telephone interview with XINHUA , adding that this was a response to Israeli attempts to reinforce the IDF’ ;s “Civil Administration” in the West Bank. (XINHUA)

About eight Israeli tanks and APCs as well as bulldozers at predawn entered the neighborhood of Al-Barazil in the town of Rafah, on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, where intensive gunfire and percussions of bombs were heard, and demolished nine Palestinian houses, Palestinian residents said. Israel explained that Palestinian militants were using the houses to fire at IDF patrols on the border. Palestinian medical sources said that two Palestinians were shot and wounded by Israeli gunfire in the neighborhood during the demolition, but they were in stable condition. (AFP)

Opening an Israeli Labour Party convention in Tel Aviv, Defence Minister and party leader Benjamin Ben-Eliezer rejected demands for the Party to quit the coalition Government, saying that “would cause the immediate cessation of the building of the separation fence”. He also said that if Labour had not been in the Government, Israel would have exiled Mr. Arafat long ago. According to Mr. Ben-Eliezer, the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian State covering “the large majority of territory in Judea and Samaria [i.e. the West Bank] and the Gaza Strip, contiguously and with special passage arrangements” was “a supreme Israeli interest”. He also noted that, within the framework of a peace agreement, Israel would have no choice but to evacuate settlements in the heart of the Gaza Strip and it had to protect areas in the West Bank, but said he objected to any unilateral move to uproot the settlements. Some 4,000 delegates were to vote the next day on Mr. Ben-Eliezer’s vision of peace. (Reuters)

Speaking to the Likud Knesset faction, Prime Minister Sharon said he had been working with Foreign Minister Peres and Defense Minister Ben-Eliezer on a new diplomatic initiative, which would be coordinated with the United States. He said the initiative would start with a series of measures to ease the burden on the Palestinian people, as requested by President Bush in his 24 June statement. Mr. Sharon also said he supported the dismantlement of illegal settler outposts in the West Bank and that he would prevent new outposts from being built. The US position, according to Mr. Sharon, had made Israel “ see an opportunity of the first order to further the diplomatic process”. Mr. Sharon, however, had the day before rejected a proposal from Foreign Minister Peres on the resumption of political talks with senior Palestinians officials close to Chairman Arafat. (Ha’aretz, Reuters, The Jerusalem Post, XINHUA)

The IDF had started calling up thousands reservists to serve with forces occupying West Bank towns, Israeli Public Radio reported. The Knesset had approved a government bill extending the maximum period of recall for reservists from 30 to 37 days a year. (AFP, DPA, Ha’aretz)

The IDF had raided the village of Az-Zababida, near Jenin, making house-to-house searches and arresting some 30 Palestinians, Palestinian sources said. In Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian security officials said Israeli tanks and special forces had captured six Palestinian border policemen in an incursion. In Hebron, witnesses said IDF troops had surrounded the polytechnic college and had rounded up about a third of the 300 students inside; all but four had been released after questioning. An IDF spokesman said an Islamic Jihad militant had been arrested in the village of Yatta, south of Hebron, for plotting suicide attacks, but had no comment on the students. Also in Hebron, relatives of police chief General Sharif Abu Maalik said he had been detained by Israeli forces for more than five hours. Qalqilya had been briefly vacated by Israeli troops, which later returned to conduct more house-to-house searches and made arrests. Palestinian sources said Israeli troops had detained two Fatah activists after raiding their homes in Bethlehem and nearby Al-Khader. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said China recognized Chairman Arafat as the elected leader of the Palestinian people and considered that a Middle East settlement required his involvement. China was very concerned over developments in the Middle East region and would continue to support the international community in its efforts to resolve Israel-Palestinian conflict as promptly as possible. It condemned all forms of violence and had repeatedly stressed that violence-for-violence could only intensify the hatred of both sides. China once again appealed to both Palestinians and Israelis to immediately halt the “vicious circle of violence” and actively to coordinate with mediation efforts of the international community so as to pave the way for a ceasefire and the resumption of negotiations at an early date, Mr. Liu said. (XINHUA)

Figures published by the PA Planning Ministry in Gaza show that 73 per cent of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip live below the poverty line, that is their income is less than 1,622 Israeli shekels (US$340) per month for a family of two adults and four children. Unemployment had reached more than 50 per cent in the Gaza Strip and 40 per cent in the West Bank. (DPA)

UNRWA asked for US$55 million in new funds to help Palestinian refugees affected by the recent Israeli offensive in the West Bank. The new request was in addition to the $117 million sought in January, of which $53 million had been pledged and $40 million actually given to the Agency. More than half of the money sought was meant for repair and reconstruction of shelters. Five million dollars would go to emergency relief and social assistance to counter growing poverty, $11 million to repair infrastructure, and the rest to buy food, provide medical services and educate children. (DPA)

During the Israeli Labour Party’s annual convention, Defence Minister and Labour Party leader Ben-Eliezer won out over a proposal to leave the Government coalition and obtained support for his peace plan, which calls for the dismantling of Jewish settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as part of a peace agreement with the Palestinians. Building the settlements in the Gaza Strip and isolated ones in the West Bank was a “mistake” and there was “no alternative” but to dismantle them, Mr. Ben-Eliezer told the convention in Tel Aviv. Military means alone could not solve the Middle East conflict, he added. The delegates rejected a series of rival proposals, including one that called for the evacuation of settlements even before a final peace agreement. (AFP, DPA)

The Gulf Cooperation Council, in a statement said it had noted the “important contents of the US President’s speech about peace in the Middle East, especially the establishment of a Palestinian State, and halting [Jewish] settlement activity in the occupied territories.” The US should work to “find the mechanisms necessary to start implementing President Bush’s vision for peace in the region through ending Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Arab territories,” on the basis of the Saudi peace initiative, the statement said. It added that the Palestinian people must be allowed to exercise their right to “self-determination and the establishment of their independent State with Jerusalem as its capital”, and that the choice of leadership was “a purely internal Palestinian matter to be decided by the Palestinian people alone.” (AFP, DPA)

Following a meeting in Ramallah with Chairman Arafat, British Foreign Office Minister Mike O’Brien, in a statement issued in London said he had urged Mr. Arafat to “exercise his authority to end the suicide bombings.” Mr. O’Brien said the Palestinian Authority needed to “reform its institutions and create circumstances in which other representatives [could] come forward,” adding, however, that this did not exclude dealing with Chairman Arafat. (AFP)

The Israeli Security Cabinet had decided to allow 5,000 Palestinians to return to work in Israel, as part of its efforts to relieve the dire conditions in which hundreds of thousands of them live, Army Radio said. It had also decided to lift the daytime curfew in the West Bank cities of Hebron, Nablus, Ramallah and Jenin. Foreign Minister Peres had advocated giving work permits to 30,000 Palestinians according to Army Radio. (AFP, Reuters)

Prime Minister Sharon had told his Security Cabinet that the IDF would remain in the reoccupied Palestinian cities of Nablus, Tulkarm, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Qalqilya, Jenin and Hebron for a long time, political sources said. Following the meeting, Effi Eitam, Minister without portfolio, told Israeli radio that the IDF would stay for a “strategic period” and at least until the end of the year. (AFP)

Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller of Denmark, holder of the EU Presidency, during a speech at the Washington think-tank American Enterprise Institute, expressed concern that President Bush’s call last week for a new Palestinian leadership could lead to six months of diplomatic inaction until Palestinian elections, currently planned for January 2003. “Shall we let a vacuum be there, where terrorists and fighting can destroy everything, or should we use this election perspective as a momentum?” Mr. Møller said, noting that order was needed to have free elections, and called on the IDF to withdraw its forces from the Occupied Palestinian Territory before they took place. Mr. Møller said that the EU, as part of the “Quartet”, would work to help create positive conditions for the Palestinian elections, calling for “step-by-step”, “bottom-up” measures to “strengthen confidence on the ground” and help Palestinians prepare for reform and elections. (DPA)

Thirty-two international aid agencies said it was increasingly difficult to meet the humanitarian needs of millions of Palestinians, because of Israel’s restrictions on movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The agencies, including Oxfam, Save the Children Fund and Care International, which are members of the Association of International Development Agencies, appealed for Israel to ease the siege and asked the international community to “put pressure on the Israeli Government to ensure humanitarian access is unrestricted as guaranteed under international law”. They said they were facing excessive delays at checkpoints, restrictions on local staff and harassment by Israeli soldiers. (AFP, Financial Times)

Chairman Arafat signed a decree replacing West Bank Preventive Security chief Colonel Jibril Rajoub with Jenin Governor Zuheir Manasrah. Mr. Rajoub was in turn offered the post of Governor of Jenin, which he reportedly turned down. General Ghazi Al-Jabali submitted his resignation as PA police chief and was appointed police advisor to Chairman Arafat. The police would be run in the interim by Mr. Al-Jabali’s former deputy Salim Al-Burdanyi. (AFP, Reuters)

A car explosion in Gaza City resulted in the death of Jihad Al-Omarayn, a colonel in the Palestinian security forces and local head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. His nephew and bodyguard also died in the explosion that Palestinian sources blamed on Israel. (AFP, Reuters)

Ha’aretz reported that the IDF had been so effective in targeting militant groups that it had, for the time being, no Palestinian “most wanted” list and would now act to prevent individual attacks rather than hunt down known militants. (AFP)

Seven Palestinians had been injured when an Israeli tank had opened fire on a communal taxi near Nablus, Palestinian medical staff said. They added that ambulances sent to pick up the injured, whose condition was not immediately known, had been refused entry to Nablus by the IDF and had been forced to head north to Jenin. It was reportedly unclear why the tank had fired on the communal taxi near the village of Tubas, although Israeli radio said the IDF had arrested several Hamas members there earlier in the day. The IDF had no immediate comment. (AFP)

Meretz party leader Yossi Sarid told Israeli Army Radio that “President Bush should have known that his [24 June] speech would spark a reoccupation of the Palestinian territories and humanitarian catastrophe”. “The United States, the Europeans and the United Nations have to do everything they can to relieve the suffering of the Palestinian population, and to deliver food and medicine”, he added, noting that “We should remind President Bush and Ariel Sharon that starving a civilian population constitutes a crime against humanity for which someone will be held accountable”. (AFP)

Speaking in Copenhagen, on the sidelines of a summit meeting between Ukraine and the EU, High Representative Solana said Israel should “lift the blockade of the Palestinian territories and help improve the terrible situation affecting the people”. He also noted that it would be “difficult for the Palestinians to carry out reforms in the current conditions”. Mr. Solana said the most important issue was for the Quartet to continue to meet, with the next meeting due to take place probably in mid-July, at ministerial level. He added that “For the moment, the ideas that we are working on consist of intensifying our efforts to make progress on the Palestinian reforms, but at the same time relieving people of the terrible living conditions”. (AFP)

Prime Minister Sharon had formulated a peace plan, which called for a “ provisional” Palestinian State on 49 per cent of the West Bank and parts of the Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported, quoting sources close to the Prime Minister. Under the plan, which Mr. Sharon had discussed with President Bush, the provisional Palestinian State would include seven per cent more land than the current Areas A in the West Bank but could only take effect after Palestinian violence against Israel had stopped, Chairman Arafat had been replaced and the PA democratized. The provisional State would exist for 10 to 15 years and only after that would Israel be prepared to accept a permanent peace treaty. Israel would agree to give up a number of isolated Jewish settlements. (DPA)

In an interview published in Yediot Aharonot, the outgoing IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-General Shaul Mofaz said that it “has been shown that it is possible to put down terrorism by resorting to military force” and thus Israel and its forces had “no other choice but to remain in the territories for a long period … at least several months”. General Mofaz renewed his call for the expulsion of Chairman Arafat. (AFP, DPA)

A survey of 590 Israelis published in Maariv found that 58 per cent favoured expelling Chairman Arafat, while 28 per cent were against it. To the question whether Israel should negotiate with the current Palestinian leadership or wait until the emergence of a new generation of leaders, 69 per cent said they preferred the second option. Eighty per cent said they eagerly anticipated a new Palestinian leadership. Fifty-six per cent said they backed the vision laid out by President Bush in his 24 June speech, while 24 per cent said they opposed it. A majority of Israelis (57 and 59 per cent respectively) supported the establishment of a Palestinian State next to Israel, and the evacuation of settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Some 48 per cent believed Israel should leave the West Bank autonomous areas it has reoccupied over the past two weeks, but only after the army had completed its “mission” there and arrested wanted militants. Another 17 per cent said Israel should withdraw as soon as possible, while 16 per cent said only after a change in the Palestinian leadership and 14 per cent said the army should not leave at all. The poll had a margin of error of 4.5 percent. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told the press in Beirut that the idea of an international conference remained, in his view, the best means to revive the Arab-Israeli peace process. “We share the conviction that only a political solution leading to a comprehensive settlement will allow us to reach a lasting peace”, he noted after talks with Lebanese leaders. He pointed to four key ingredients for peace: “The fight against terrorism, the end of occupation, a halt to [Jewish] settlement [activity], and the creation of a viable and democratic Palestinian State”. Arab and European peace proposals, combined with President Bush’s 24 June statement, formed a “convergence” of views on which “to build to transform our joint vision into reality”, Minister de Villepin said. (AFP)

A 45-year old Palestinian man died after being hit in the head, chest and leg when Israeli troops opened heavy machine-gun fire from an area close to the “Morag” settlement on the eastern outskirts of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical and security sources told AFP . In a separate incident, a forty-year-old Palestinian woman and her two-year-old daughter were shot dead in a taxi near the “Netzarim” settlement south of Gaza city, Palestinian medical sources said. An Israeli military spokesman at first denied there had been any shooting in the area, but the following day the IDF released a statement saying that “After a first inquiry by Tsahal it emerges that there was shooting with light arms Saturday morning in the Netzarim sector after a Tsahal unit saw suspect silhouettes.” (AFP)

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin warned that the Israeli reoccupation of PA areas undermined the Palestinians’ ability to hold elections. (AFP)

Around 300 Israeli peace activists from Ta’ayush group delivered essential medical supplies to the town of Salfit in the northern West Bank, isolated by the IDF. (AFP)

The PA had begun implementing the Palestinian Basic Law, or provisional constitution, Minister of Justice Ibrahim Al-Dughme announced, saying, that “The Basic Law entered into force today after having been promulgated at the end of May by Yasser Arafat.” (AFP, DPA)

A Palestinian man was critically injured when he was hit in the face by a bullet from an Israeli tank, which opened fire near a group of Palestinians trying to enter Nablus from surrounding villages during a lifting of the curfew by the IDF. Witnesses also said that Israeli helicopters had fired warning shots over the city as the army reimposed the curfew an hour early, at 1 pm instead of 2 pm. Separately, a ten-year-old Palestinian boy who had been hit by machine-gun fire from an Israeli tank on June 27 had died of his injuries, his family said. (AFP)

Israeli troops arrested two Palestinians near the town of Khan Yunis in he southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian security sources and witnesses said. Troops searched the Al-Qarara district, east of Khan Yunis, for a few hours before arresting the two men and then withdrawing. Moreover, the IDF said the same day it had arrested four other Palestinians wanted for questioning over their “involvement in terrorist activities.” One was arrested in Al-Attara, about 10km north of Tulkarm, while a second was picked up in Zeita, about 6km north of Tulkarm. Two others were arrested on the road leading to “Mount Eval”, about 3km north of Nablus. Separately, the IDF said it had captured two armed Palestinians near the “Elei Sinai” settlement in northern Gaza Strip. (AFP, DPA)

The South African charity organization “Gift of the Givers” charged that Israel was obstructing the delivery of humanitarian aid for political reasons because South Africa was critical of its invasion of the Palestinian territories. A plane with humanitarian aid to Palestinians collected by the organization had been grounded at Johannesburg International Airport since 26 June. A statement by the Israeli embassy in Pretoria denied that Israel was delaying the delivery of aid, saying “We support donations and any other initiatives aimed at easing poverty and suffering in the Palestinian territories, especially when coming from friendly states such as South Africa.” (AFP)

Foreign Minister Peres held talks with Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayad in Jerusalem, Israeli Army Radio reported. Israeli officials said the discussions with Mr. Fayad and scheduled talks later in the week with newly appointed Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razzek Al-Yehiye would focus on easing conditions for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Mr. Peres’ spokeswoman Yaffa Ben-Ari told DPA that the meeting was the first in a series of encounters, aimed at establishing a dialogue which would eventually pave the way for a resumption of the peace process. (AFP, DPA, Ha’aretz, The Jerusalem Post, Reuters)

Israeli Government support for a proposed law banning Arab citizens of Israel from buying homes in housing projects on state-owned land drew criticism from the Israeli Attorney-General Eliyakim Rubinstein. A statement released by his office said he “urged ministers not to adopt an unnecessary law that could further unravel the delicate fabric of Jewish-Arab relations”. Earlier, opposition leader Yossi Sarid released a statement calling the Cabinet decision another one in a line that “transforms Israel into a racist State, perhaps the most racist State of all democratic nations”. The Israeli Cabinet voted 17-2 to support the bill proposed by a member of the National Religious Party, a partner in the ruling coalition. (The Jerusalem Post, Reuters)

Chairman Arafat, in a speech read out for him at an Organization of African Unity summit in Durban, South Africa, said “the Israeli occupation aim[ed] at depriving our Palestinian people from exercising their right to local, parliamentary and presidential elections, which we have declared”. (Reuters)

President Bush during a White House press conference said Israel was justified in occupying the West Bank “until security improv[ed]”. With regard to reform of the PA, Mr. Bush said he believed “some progress” had been made toward the institutions he saw as “necessary for a Palestinian State to emerge.” He also said as “security improv[ed]” in the Middle East, he would urge the Israelis to allow for more freedom of movement by the Palestinian people. (AFP)

Israeli police shut down the administrative building of Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem, headed by PLO representative Sari Nusseibeh, a police spokesman said. The University’s offices were closed on orders from Public Security Minister Uzi Landau, the spokesman said, adding the closure included Mr. Nusseibeh’s office and the University remained open. A Government official said the offices had been used to conduct business for the Palestinian Authority, in alleged contravention of interim peace deals. (AFP, Reuters)

A Palestinian gunman shot and injured an Israeli policeman near the Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem during a shoot-out in which a Palestinian bystander was killed, Israel Radio reported. The gunman managed to get away, the radio said. In a separate incident, a special unit of the Israeli army killed a leading member of Islamic Jihad near Jenin before dawn, the movement said. Also in the West Bank, the IDF said it had arrested eight Palestinians overnight suspected of involvement in attacks. In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical and security sources said two Palestinians were wounded, one seriously, by Israeli gunfire when troops entered the Rafah refugee camp. A Palestinian policeman was also arrested, four houses destroyed and three damaged in the midnight raid by troops in armoured vehicles, including tanks, personnel carriers and bulldozers, security sources said. The IDF said three mortar bombs had been fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, one exploding inside Israel and two landing near the “Gush Katif” settlement, causing no casualties. (AFP, DPA, Ha’aretz, The Jerusalem Post, Reuters)

Lieutenant-General Moshe Yaalon succeeded Lieutenant-General Shaul Mofaz as Chief of Staff for the IDF. (AFP, Ha’aretz, The Jerusalem Post, Reuters)

Foreign Minister Peres said his Jerusalem talks with the new PA Interior Minister General Abdel Razzek Al-Yahiya had been “good”. Mr. Erakat said during the talks the Palestinian side had asked the Israelis to withdraw from Palestinian areas, terminate the siege and closure, stop settlement activities and the policy of assassinations, while the Israeli side had talked about security issues. “We hope that the ultimate end result is not just the mere fact that we are meeting but that we can do something … that we can revive the peace process”, Mr. Erakat noted. Political sources said Israel had agreed to set up a committee to discuss the matters raised during the talks and it would study the possibility of releasing Palestinian tax and customs revenues withheld since the eruption of violence. (AFP, Reuters)

IDF special forces shot dead Islamic Jihad militant Moammar Daraghme, 30, in an ambush in the Palestinian village of Yamun, 10 kilometres from Jenin. Separately, the IDF had arrested 20 Palestinians, eight of them Jordanian nationals, following a roundup of 200 suspects in the village of Beit Lima, north of Ramallah. A curfew had been imposed on the village and all men had been called in for an identity check. The curfew was lifted later in the day. (AFP)

The Government of Germany had put forward a working paper outlining steps and a timetable aimed at bringing peace between Israel and the Palestinians on the basis of the ideas put forward by President Bush in his 24 June speech, a German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said. The paper, drawn up by German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, had a three-year horizon for the realization of the vision outlined by President Bush and included measures to improve security, the spokeswoman said, declining to give further details. However, a government source reportedly said the paper promoted a three-phase plan, according to which Chairman Arafat would initially appoint a caretaker Prime Minister to tighten security and kick-start reforms and elections at the start of 2003. Then, through 2003, a Palestinian State would be created, which, over the next two years, would negotiate with Israel key issues such as borders. At the same time, Israel would end restrictions on the West Bank and Gaza Strip and would build no new settlements on occupied land. Mr. Fischer’s four-page proposal also reportedly included plans to establish a Security Council-based representative with executive powers to oversee the reform of Palestinian institutions. The paper had been presented to EU High Representative Solana, UN Secretary-General Annan, US special Middle East envoy Burns and Russian Foreign Minister Ivanov and was expected to be discussed at the “Quartet” high-level meeting next week. (DPA, Reuters)

PA Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo told a press conference in Ramallah that Chairman Arafat had sent a message to the Quartet, due to meet in New York the following week, warning that continuing reforms would not be possible if Israel continued the siege of Palestinian areas. “Our message to the world is we took serious steps in reform, and we will continue them and we will implement our 100-day [reform] plan … But Israel’s punishing procedures prevent us from implementing this plan”, Mr. Abed Rabbo said. He added that Foreign Minister Peres, at his meetings with the PA Finance and Interior Ministers the previous two days, had nothing “serious” to offer, noting that “The Israelis called for this meeting before the Quartet meeting to show to the world they had something to offer”. Minister Abed Rabbo said “the key [was] in Washington’s hands” and urged the US to change its policy towards Israel. (AFP)

A 19-year-old Palestinian died of chest wounds at the Askar refugee camp near Nablus, after an incident in which witnesses said an Israeli tank had opened fire with a heavy machinegun to disperse people allegedly violating an IDF-imposed curfew. Two other Palestinians were reportedly wounded. Separately, an Israeli army captain was shot dead by Palestinian militants who opened fire from a building at a reconnaissance company searching for tunnels used for smuggling weapons from Egypt, in an area on the border of the Gaza Strip under Israeli security control. Commenting on the incident, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades said its forces had confronted an Israeli patrol just inside the Gaza Strip. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

The White House in a statement said “the recent closure [by the Israeli Government] of Mr. Sari Nusseibeh’s Al Quds University offices in Jerusalem [was] a troubling event.” The statement said “this action [did] not contribute to the fight against terrorism, [did] not promote reform of Palestinian institutions,” while adding they were “discussing the situation with the Israeli Government.” A US official said Washington’s concerns had been expressed to Israel from high levels in the White House. (AFP, The Jerusalem Post, Reuters)

Chairman Arafat in Ramallah named former head of security Mohammed Dahlan as National Security Advisor, effective immediately. (DPA, The Jerusalem Post)

The new Chief of Staff of the IDF, General Moshe Ya’alon said he was against the expulsion of Chairman Arafat, while backing efforts to sideline him, Israeli army radio reported. “It would be a mistake to expel Arafat because it would strengthen him instead of weakening him,” he was quoted as telling senior IDF officers. (AFP)

The IDF said it had arrested 10 suspected militants in villages near Nablus overnight. It said they all had links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and one was suspected of involvement in a suicide bombing. (AFP, DPA, Ha’aretz, Reuters)

The Israeli Justice Ministry spokesman Jacob Galanti announced that it would give West Bank Fatah leader and Palestinian Council member Marwan Barghouti a public trial in a civilian court to show “justice was done,” adding that no decision had been taken on when the trial would begin. Mr. Barghouti’s lawyer Jawad Boulos told Reuters that his defence team would not appear in any court as they did not recognize his detention and so would not deal with any court, civilian or military. Mr. Boulos also said that Mr. Barghouti had begun a hunger strike the same day to protest his jail conditions. (Ha’aretz, The Jerusalem Post, Reuters)

Amnesty International condemned Palestinian suicide attacks on Israeli civilians as crimes against humanity and urged the Palestinian Authority to prosecute those responsible. Meanwhile, the Organization said it had obtained a commitment from Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front to Liberate Palestine to end attacks on Israeli civilians if Israel stopped killing Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and Gaza. Amnesty’s Deputy Chief in the Middle East, Abdel Sallam Sayyed Ahmed said they had received the commitments after meeting separately with the leaders of the three Palestinian groups. (DPA,The Jerusalem Post, Reuters)

Bethlehem’s Governor Mohammed Madani told WAFA that Israel’s reoccupation of the town had “totally paralysed business” and was bringing the town toward a humanitarian crisis. “Thousands of residents have lost their jobs, hundreds of others have been arrested, and about 1,500 are without shelter after the destruction of their homes,” the Governor said, adding that he had written to foreign diplomats asking them to intervene on behalf of the town. (AFP)

In testimony during a hearing before the House International Relations Subcommittee on Middle East Affairs, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Satterfield said measures against the PA currently debated in Congress would harm US relations with Arab allies and undermine Middle East peacemaking efforts. He referred to a possible adoption of the “Middle East Peace Commitments Act”, which would impose sanctions if the PA was found to have not complied with its commitments under the Oslo peace accords, as “highly counterproductive to our efforts to focus on positive outcomes”. Regarding the “Arafat Accountability Act”, which would ban any PA official from entering the US and close down the Palestinian information office in Washington, he said it would “undercut the very goals we share of encouraging fundamental democratic reform of Palestinian governance”. House lawmakers considering the legislation insisted the bills would “codify” the vision for the Middle East laid out by President Bush in his 24 June speech, but Mr. Satterfield said the White House did not need this kind of help. He added that sanctions would fuel doubts about US willingness to support a Palestinian State and cut off communication with moderate, reform-minded Palestinians. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

Israeli special forces captured the head of Force 17 security service, Colonel Abdelrahim Al-Nubani, in a raid on a village near Ramallah. (AFP)

After talks in Washington with Secretary of State Powell, visiting French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin urged the US and others to move ahead swiftly with peace efforts in the Middle East, stressing “the need for a political initiative”, as “the vacuum in the region can be very dangerous” and “the terrorists and the people who don’t want peace” should no be allowed to take the initiative. He expressed the hope that an international peace conference would go ahead, noting that it did not have to address the most contentious issues of the status of Jerusalem and Palestine refugees, but could “create the momentum that might put pressure on everybody in order to work out a quick settlement”. (AFP)

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a statement that it was “deeply disturbed” by the Israeli failure to release Reuters cameraman Jussry Al-Jamal, AFP photographer Hussam Abu Alan and Al-Quds reporter Kamel Jbeil. “We protest the prolonged detention without charge of these journalists by Israeli authorities”, said Ann Cooper, CPJ Executive Director, and demanded that they be released immediately. (Reuters)

Palestinian security sources said Israeli troops had entered the town of Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip and fired at a police station, killing one policeman and seriously injuring two others. A 13-year-old boy also died in the incursion, after he had been hit in the head and Israeli forces for two hours prevented an ambulance from taking him away, according to the director of the local hospital. Two more Palestinians, who had been injured by Israeli gunfire in the West Bank during the week, had died in hospital. One of the latter two victims, Imad Abu Zahra, was a journalist and had been wearing a jacket with the word “Press” stamped on it in English when he was shot at in Jenin, his colleagues said. The IDF had also arrested dozens of people in a major sweep for militants across the West Bank, Palestinian witnesses said. In Jenin in particular, residents said soldiers had called men aged 15 to 50 to the center of the city and then took more than 100 away in a bus before releasing most of them later in the day. In Bir Zeit, near Ramallah, Israeli soldiers had arrested five Palestinians, including two members of a PA intelligence service. Nine suspected militants had reportedly been arrested in Tulkarm, four in Qalqilya and one in Bethlehem during night and morning raids. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

Following the death of Palestinian reporter Imad Abu Zahra, after his fatal wounding by Israeli gunfire, the media watchdog group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said in Paris it had added Prime Minister Sharon to its list of enemies of press freedoms. RSF said that apart from the two journalists recently killed, more than 40 had been wounded by Israeli army fire since the start of the intifada in September 2000. “The Israeli army acts with total impunity. It is intolerable. How many deaths will there have to be before the army stops attacking the press?”, RSF chief Robert Menard asked in a statement. (Reuters)

The Arab League Follow-up Committee for the Arab peace initiative and for the other decisions adopted at the Beirut Arab Summit last March held a meeting at the Foreign Minister level in Cairo. The participants had reiterated “a collective Arab commitment to [Arab peace] initiative as a whole without any hesitation and without any change”, Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud told a news conference. They were committed to establishing a sovereign Palestinian State within the pre-1967 borders as well as to the right of return of Palestinian refugees, he said. Arab League Secretary-General Amre Moussa said Arabs could not accept any other peace framework and noted that “the meeting stressed a Palestinian State should be a real and active State with East Jerusalem as its capital”. “In this framework, the Arab countries are ready, not only to sign a peace agreement, but to establish peaceful relations as well”, Mr. Moussa added. Regarding the vision expressed in President Bush’s recent speech, Mr. Moussa said it included positive aspects but had other aspects, which should be discussed, thus no decision had been reached in that regard yet. In preparation for the Quartet meeting in New York, the Foreign Ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt held talks at the sidelines of the broader Arab League meeting. (AFP, Reuters)

Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer said Israeli troops had arrested 15 would-be Palestinian suicide bombers and intercepted three booby-trapped cars since they reoccupied most of the West Bank three weeks ago. The Minister told Israeli radio that there was no alternative to Israel staying in the West Bank in order to prevent attacks, but noted that it did not want to stay “for ever”. (AFP, DPA)

PA Minister Saeb Erakat, referring to the Israeli announcement of a forthcoming public trial of detained Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, said in a statement that “the Palestinian Authority will not accept the decision or the result of the trial, which will be null and void in accordance with international law”. He added that he had written to the US, the UN, the EU countries and Russia to demand their intervention to prevent the trial. (Reuters)

Interviewed on Israel’s Channel Two television, US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Chairman Arafat should be removed as Palestinian leader only through elections. She noted that in calling for a leadership change, the US had concluded that the PA “seemed unwilling … to fight terror” but added that “This is not about one man. This not about Chairman Arafat. This is a political system that needs to change so you can have accountability in institutions … security services that are accountable. … And never again should one man hold sway over the lives of an entire Palestinian population.” She also said the US Administration “were somewhat taken aback and saddened by what happened to Sari Nusseibeh at the university because this is a man who has been a voice for moderation in the Palestinian political landscape”. (Reuters)

Chairman Arafat had written to Secretary of State Powell this week to press for an Israeli withdrawal from West Bank towns so that reforms could take place, the Palestinian representative in Washington Hassan Abdel Rahman told Reuters. The letter had been delivered to the State Department on 10 July, in advance of the Quartet meeting in New York the following week. (Reuters)

The International Labour Organisation’s expert on the issue of Palestinian workers’ Samir Radwan, told a news briefing in Geneva that the situation was “extremely urgent” and the ILO would “give assistance to set up the Employment and Social Protection Fund to cope with the mounting unemployment which has resulted from the closure of the Israeli labour market to Palestinian workers and the difficulty of the private sector to function within the Gaza Strip and West Bank”. The ILO was expected to complete a feasibility study by October and hold a donors’ conference immediately afterwards. Palestinian Labour Minister Ghassan Al-Khatib said that most of the 811,000 Palestinian workers were unable to work due to Israeli closures and curfews. “These two policies are preventing 78 per cent of the labour force from reaching work and consequently preventing those workers from earning their wages and pushing thousands of them into poverty”, he added. (Reuters)

Israeli troops critically wounded a Palestinian woman in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical sources said. Separately, a Palestinian teacher died from gunshot wounds, two days after having been hit by Israeli fire near the West Bank town of Qalqilya. (AFP) (AFP)

Dozens of people protested in East Jerusalem against the closure by Israeli police of the Al-Quds University’s administrative offices. According to the Israeli news agency y-net, most of the demonstrators were European nationals. Israeli police prevented a march by protesters and arrested one man as scuffles broke out. (AFP, DPA)

Israeli Environment Minister Zachi Hanegbi told Israel Radio that PA areas would be occupied for at least a year, emphasizing that the Israeli presence would be a military occupation, saying that with money from donor countries supporting the local economy, Israel would not need to take over the civil administration of the PA territories. (DPA)

Israel Air Force warplanes and helicopters reportedly destroyed a building in Al-Qarara, near the town of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, in what appeared to be a failed attempt to assassinate a Hamas militant. The three-floor building was destroyed in the attack and up to 10 people were injured by flying debris, hospital workers and witnesses said. In a separate incident, a 24-year-old Palestinian man was shot dead as he tried to stab an Israeli soldier in an army jeep in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, Palestinian medics and witnesses said. (AFP, Ha’aretz)

Speaking at the weekly Cabinet meeting, Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer said Public Security Minister Uzi Landau had made a “strategic mistake” in closing the Al-Quds University offices of Sari Nusseibeh, Israel Army Radio said. (AFP)

Israeli military police investigators were conducting more than 200 investigations against military personnel for alleged illegal use of weapons, violent acts and looting since the beginning of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000. According to Ma’ariv, more than 25 indictments have so far been handed down. An officer holding the rank of lieutenant-colonel was among those being investigated. The Israeli military prosecutor recently decided to launch an investigation into the firing of a tank shell, which killed four Palestinians, among them three children, in Jenin two weeks ago. (DPA)

Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer, after meeting President Mubarak in Alexandria, said there was no military solution to the conflict, and he believed the Egyptians were ready to help promote a pilot project in which the Israelis and Palestinians would attempt to reduce the level of violence in a defined area of the territories. Mr. Ben-Eliezer said the plan could first be implemented in the Gaza Strip, and if it worked it would be expanded to other areas. (Ha’aretz)

PA Local Government Minister Saeb Erekat announced that 10 international experts arrived in the West Bank to assist in preparations for PA elections. The European Commission also said an EU mission arrived in PA areas to see how the EU could help to make general elections there go smoothly in January. EU spokesman Gunnar Wiegand said the EU wanted to make sure all eligible voters got an opportunity to cast their ballots unhindered and in secrecy. “The electorate must be able to vote in a free environment (and) feel free to vote,” he said, adding the EU was ready to provide technical aid and deploy election observers, and before it committed any funds it wanted to ensure voting would be free and fair. (Ha’aretz)

Stun grenades thrown by IDF caused a large fire in Qalqilya, which killed one Palestinian. Witnesses said that the troops initially prevented a Palestinian fire engine from approaching, but then allowed two Israeli fire trucks with firefighting crews from the “Ariel” and “Karnei Shomron” settlements to extinguish the blaze. (Ha’aretz)

Israeli High Court rejected a petition to reveal confidential information, which was part of the report on the Sabra and Shatila massacre. (Ha’aretz)

The IDF lifted the curfew for 12 hours in Jenin to enable residents to stock up on food. For a few hours the curfew was lifted in in Bethlehem, Tulkarem and Hebron. (DPA, Ha’aretz)

The IDF prevented Palestinian intelligence chief Amin Al-Hindi from meeting with Chairman Arafat in Ramallah. (Ha’aretz)

The Qatari Ministry of Economy and Trade stressed Qatar’s commitment to the economic boycott of Israel, after Israeli products were discovered on the local market. The director of Economic Affairs at the ministry, Ali Hasan Khalaf, said Israeli products and goods had entered either through Europe or were re-exports. (DPA)

According to MIFTAH, Israeli soldiers stormed the offices of the West Bank telecommunications company Palnet and cut off internet access in Ramallah, Gaza and East Jerusalem. (DPA)

Before dawn, six Israeli armoured vehicles and a helicopter had entered Jericho, the only West Bank city not under reoccupation, and had arrested the local Force 17 head, Colonel Abdel Rahman Abu Saleh, before leaving the city, Palestinian security sources said. The IDF had reportedly arrested seven other Palestinians in locations throughout the northern West Bank (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

President Mubarak and Prime Minister Sharon, in a rare telephone conversation between them, had discussed the talks between Messrs Mubarak and Ben-Eliezer the previous day in Alexandria and had reviewed current diplomatic efforts to calm the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, MENA reported. They had also reviewed Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman’s talks with Mr. Sharon in Israel earlier in the month. President Mubarak had stressed the importance of ending the blockade of West Bank cities, including Chairman Arafat’s headquarters, so that the PA could carry out its responsibilities, MENA said. (Reuters)

Speaking ahead of the Quartet meeting, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin urged US, UN, Russian and EU officials meeting in New York to set the stage for an international conference that would allow a number of ideas to be put on the table and would thus create “the political momentum necessary to relaunch the peace process”. “The situation in the Middle East is dramatic, but it can get even more so”, Mr. De Villepin warned, noting that there was across the board agreement that a Palestinian State should be established and should live in peace and security beside Israel. He urged the PA to stick to an election calendar “so we can give hope to the Palestinian people, who feel they don’t have a future”. (AFP)

The IDF had arrested several Palestinian students on their way to school in an UNRWA bus which was carrying students from the southern Gaza Strip to an UNRWA school in Gaza Cit, Palestinian security sources and witnesses said. The IDF had closed two checkpoints on either side of the bus trajectory, before encircling it with two tanks, the sources said. Israeli troops then held and searched about 30 young Palestinians and arrested seven of them. UNRWA confirmed the arrests. (AFP)

Palestinian gunmen ambushed a bus carrying settlers near the West Bank settlement of “Immanuel”, between Qalqilya and Nablus, killing seven settlers and injuring at least 20, some of them seriously. The Palestinians were reportedly disguised as Israeli soldiers and had detonated a roadside bomb alongside the bus at the entrance to the settlement of mainly ultra-Orthodox Jews, and then opened fire at surviving passengers who fled the vehicle. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades as well as the military wings of Hamas and of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement published by WAFA , the PA condemned the attack, reiterating its opposition to targetting civilians “no matter if they are Israelis or Palestinians” and saying that peace and security could only be achieved through a political solution that ended the Israeli occupation and implemented international resolutions and agreements. (DPA, Reuters)

In a statement released by his spokesperson, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was “appalled” by the latest terrorist attack on the Israeli settlers and reiterated “his utter condemnation of indiscriminate attacks against civilians which cannot be justified by any political or other objective”. Asserting that the attack “was clearly designed to disrupt the search for a peaceful solution to the conflict,” the statement stressed that the perpetrators “cannot be allowed to succeed in their sinister purpose.” (UN News Centre at www.un.org/News)

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer called the attack on the Israeli settlers a “brutal, targeted attempt” to torpedo the efforts by the international community to find a political solution to the Middle East conflict and vowed that “this calculation [would] not succeed”. (DPA)

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) said in its annual report that the IDF’s ambiguous commands and “forgiving attitude toward unjustified fire on the part of its soldiers” contributed to “the extensive injury to innocent civilians”, including many women and children. The report, which covered the period July 2001 to June 2002, inter alia cited the case of a tank crew and commander who, in May 2002, had been reprimanded after having been tried for the killing of a mother and two children in Jenin. “The light sentence imposed on the offending soldiers … gives the message to the soldiers that the lives of Palestinian children are cheap, and that a light trigger-finger will receive the full backing of the army”, ACRI noted in its report. It also accused the IDF of denying Palestinians access to medical treatment by preventing ambulances from taking away the wounded or damaging medical facilities. (AFP)

A report released by the International Crisis Group (ICG) urged the Quartet and the Arab “Trio” (i.e. Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia) to advocate, preferably at an early international conference, detailed blueprints for permanent peace agreements between Israel and its Arab neighbours. The report set out detailed proposals for peace treaties between Israel and Syria and Lebanon, as well as an agreement with the Palestinians. “The goal would not be to impose a settlement on the Israeli or Palestinian leaderships but rather to generate so much domestic and international support for it that opposition would become increasingly hard to sustain”, the ICG report said. It also called for a “fully-mandated and capable US-led multinational force to monitor implementation of the agreement and enhance both sides’ sense of confidence and security”. According to the ICG proposals, the borders of the State of Palestine should be based on the lines of 4 June 1967, with Israel annexing up to 4 per cent of land in the West Bank to accommodate a majority of its settlers; in exchange, Palestine would receive land from Israel of equal size and actual or potential value. Jerusalem would be divided and an “international police presence and civilian administration” established for t he Old City and associated religious sites. While praising President Bush’s vision, as expressed in his 24 June speech, the ICG report questioned the means suggested, saying the incentives of a possible “provisional” Palestinian State and final-status negotiations, without a roadmap or international commitment, were unlikely to steer Palestinians swiftly away from violence. It said the suffering of Palestinians and Israelis justified pushing for a final settlement, rather than “the endless pursuit of yet another interim or partial cure”. It admitted, though that “in the current environment, ICG has no illusions about the degree of difficulty involved in persuading the US Administration to change its present course” . (Reuters)

Following the Quartet meeting in New York on 16 July, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that “quite clearly” there was disagreement between the US and the other Quartet members on what to expect from Chairman Arafat and whether or how to deal with him, but the group had nonetheless decided to work through their differences on this issue to support broad Palestinian reforms. “We all agree we need practical steps to create the institutions, to create the divisions of Government, the responsibilities, the accountability that will give the humanitarian support, that will give the Palestinians the kind of leadership they need and want and that will give them the prospect of a State”, Mr. Boucher noted, urging everyone to “roll up our sleeves and get the work done”. Regarding the pace at which Israel should take steps to reciprocate Palestinian reform so that a political dialogue could be resumed, Mr. Boucher noted that all Quartet members had recognized the importance of improved security and said the disagreement was less stark than it appeared. (AFP)

In a message read on his behalf in Copenhagen at the international media seminar on “Ending confrontation: Building peace in the Middle East” organized by the UN Department of Public Information in cooperation with the Foreign Ministry of Denmark, Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller, whose country currently holds the EU Presidency, said there was “still a need for an early convening of an international peace conference to confirm the parameters of the political solution and to establish a realistic and well-defined timeframe for the creation of an independent Palestinian State”. He noted that such a conference should take place in the autumn, “in order to have a positive impact on the elections scheduled for January 2003”. (AFP)

The Mayor of Seelat Ad-Daher, a town near Jenin, said a Fatah militant had been killed and four others had been wounded, one of them seriously, when Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles, backed by helicopters, had encircled and attacked the house they were in. The seriously injured militant died the following day. Separately, the IDF had arrested the political leader of Hamas for Hebron, a Hamas official told AFP . Mohammed Al-Natshe, 43, had been captured in Ramallah. The IDF declined to comment on the report. (AFP)

A missile fired by an Israeli F-16 jet completely destroyed a two-storey building containing a metal workshop in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, injuring one Palestinian and causing heavy damage in the vicinity. An IDF statement said the target had been a weapons workshop operated by Hamas and used “to make weapons, including mortar shells and different types of rockets”. (AFP)

Palestinians in the Occupied Territory were facing a dire humanitarian crisis following months of Israeli-Palestinian violence and pause in Palestinian economic activity, the EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten said. “The situation is seriously worrying. It is important to respond quickly and intelligently”, Mr. Patten said, adding the EU would send aid to the region. He blamed high Palestinian unemployment levels of 70 to 80 per cent for the crisis, saying Prime Minister Sharon’s first appeal for UN aid was “recognition of just how dire the circumstances” were. Mr. Patten said Israel had to allow humanitarian aid agencies full access to Palestinian areas, as it was not a question of a lack of resources but of an inability to move around. Regarding Chairman Arafat’s status, Mr. Patten said the EU and the US had “an agreement to disagree”, although there was total agreement that “leaders in Palestine who are democratic and against violence” were needed. Elections must be held and a start made to prepare for Palestinian statehood, Mr. Patten said. He noted that “The sooner Israel returns tax revenues [to the Palestinians] the better. The sooner it starts withdrawing to its pre-September 2000 position, the better. The sooner it ends closures, the better”. (DPA)

Two Palestinian suicide bombers killed at least three other people and wounded about 40, six of them seriously, when they blew themselves up in rapid succession, 20 metres apart from each other, in a Tel Aviv neighbourhood. Two of the dead were immigrant workers. The attack occurred as Israelis started to mark the Tisha B’Av holiday, commemorating the destruction of the first and second Jewish temples. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. Israel blamed Chairman Arafat’s “policy of incitement to violence”. PA Cabinet Secretary Ahmed Abdel Rahman said in a statement that the PA condemned this operation, which would not help the Palestinian people. He added that Israel bore part of the responsibility because of its continuing occupation of Palestinian territories and towns. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

In the wake of the Tel Aviv attack Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer’s office announced the freezing of unspecified “alleviation measures in the sphere of trade and industry for the Palestinian population”. (AFP, Reuters)

Following the Tel Aviv suicide bomb attacks, President Bush condemned “these despicable acts of terror” and said peace could not be built “ on a platform of violence against innocents” “These terrorist acts are also attacks on our efforts to restore hope to the Palestinian people”, Mr. Bush said in a written statement. He added that there was now “broad international consensus – as evidenced by the meetings this week in Washington and New York – on the need to support Palestinian reform, address the urgent humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people and restore momentum toward a two-State solution”. (AFP, Reuters)

The following statement was issued by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan:

The Secretary-General condemns in the strongest possible terms the suicide bomb attack today in Tel Aviv, which comes on the heels of yesterday’s terrorist attack near the settlement of Emanuel in the West Bank. The Secretary-General reiterates his utter denunciation of such heinous acts, which are harmful to the Palestinian cause and do not serve any acceptable purpose, political or otherwise.

The international community and the parties must remain steadfast in their determination not to allow the perpetrators of violent and senseless acts to derail efforts in the search for a just, comprehensive and lasting solution to the conflict.

(UN Press Release SG/SM/8311 of 17 July 2002)

Prime Minister Sharon’s advisor Ra’anan Gissin said plans for talks between Israeli and Palestinian officials remained on hold after the recent terrorist attacks. (Reuters)

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, ahead of talks with President Bush and Secretary of State Powell in Washington, told reporters the US was mistaken in trying to isolate Chairman Arafat, as he was “the only Palestinian leader who has the authority … to sign an agreement with the Israelis and have it implemented. In the present situation, there can be no substitute.” Referring to Mr. Bush’s vision expressed in his 24 June speech, Mr. Maher drew attention to the fact that “everything the Palestinians have to do is upfront and everything the Israelis have to do is delayed and is conditional on the will of the Israeli Government”, which, he said, was not a good formula. The vision should be reshuffled, Mr. Maher said, “to create links between the obligations of both sides”. “All tracks should start together … Security will not be achieved until the other tracks start moving”. The Egyptian Foreign Minister, together with Jordanian and Saudi counterparts, was expected inter alia to discuss with the US Administration a proposal that Arab security experts train a restructured Palestinian security force. However, Mr. Maher noted Egypt would send no trainers to the Occupied Palestinian Territory until Israeli forces withdrew from the West Bank towns they had recently reoccupied. Egypt would also require guarantees that Israel would not destroy the infrastructure of the new security force, as it had done with the buildings of the existing Palestinian forces. (Reuters)

At the 4578^thmeeting of the Security Council, its current President Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock (UK) made the following statement (Presidential Statement S/PRST/2002/20):

The Security Council supports the Joint Statement of the Quartet, annexed to this statement, which was issued in New York on 16 July 2002 by the Secretary-General, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Secretary of State of the United States, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, the High Representative for the European Union Common Foreign and Security Policy, and the European Commissioner for External Affairs. The Security Council appreciates also the involvement in discussions with the Quartet of senior representatives of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

The Security Council calls upon the Government of Israel, the Palestinian Authority and all States in the region to cooperate with the efforts to achieve the goals set out in the Joint Statement and stresses the importance of, and the need to achieve, a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East, based on all its resolutions, including its resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967, 338 (1973) of 22 October 1973 and 1397 (2002), the Madrid terms of reference and the principle of land for peace.

(UN Security Council Press Release SC/7457 of 18 July 2002)

Secretary of State Powell in an interview with US National Public Radio said the US was prepared to deal with the as new PA Finance and Interior Ministers, Messrs Salam Fayad and Abdel Razzek Al-Yahiya respectively, as those were “certainly two individuals that seem to be not only asserting authority and trying to work on transformation, but seem to be acting with authority”, adding that both the US and Israel were prepared to work with them. As for Chairman Arafat, he said there was no specific US plan and it was up to the Palestinian people to decide on his role. The Secretary of State said he remained open to the idea of giving Mr. Arafat a symbolic leadership position, with governmental affairs handled by a Prime Minister, but said that was not an idea the US had presented. (AFP, Reuters)

“Only a political solution will bring an end to this tragic situation”, Secretary of State Powell told reporters after lunch at the State Department with the visiting Foreign Ministers of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. “I reaffirmed to my colleagues President Bush’s commitment … to working as hard as possible to try to achieve a final settlement within the three-year period”, he added. Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Al-Muasher said he and his colleagues left encouraged about “the US firm commitment to an endgame that will be achieved in three years’ time” and because of what they heard “of the need to translate the vision into a detailed plan”. Mr. Powell repeated the US position that, although it was important for moves to be made on all tracks “in parallel if not necessarily in perfect synchronization”, it was important to keep working on the security track. (Reuters)

“Our vision for peace understands that all parties have got responsibilities. The United States has a responsibility … The Israelis have a responsibility. The Palestinians have a responsibility,” President Bush told reporters ahead of his meeting with the Foreign Ministers of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia in Washington. He said the enemies of peace tried to derail peace efforts and discourage those making them, but “we refuse to be discouraged”. Briefing reporters after the talks, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal blamed Prime Minister Sharon for holding up Middle East peace and said he would be more optimistic with regard to peace if Mr. Sharon was “not there”. He said this should be changed by the Israelis themselves, those who wanted peace, otherwise, “if they leave it to Sharon, he will lead the Middle East only to tragedy and conflict”. Prince Saud also said President Bush had volunteered to use his influence on Israel for the latter to pull its troops out of Palestinian areas once Palestinians had agreed to a ceasefire. The three Foreign Ministers had briefed the President on a draft plan for statehood that prescribed a ceasefire followed by an Israeli pull out, which would allow for Palestinian elections and for a Palestinian State to be formed over the next three years. The President was “very pleased with it”, Prince Saud said. He added that, although there was agreement on holding early elections in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, this could not happen before an Israeli withdrawal to positions held before 28 September 2000. On the Palestinian side, he said all factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, were “working on a paper that has all the conditions that they will subscribe to for stopping the fighting”, without elaborating further. (AFP, Reuters)

Israel’s withholding of US$400 million in tax funds was an obstacle to the execution of the 100-day action plan launched by the new Palestinian Cabinet, PA Finance Minister Salam Fayad told reporters after a meeting with representatives of donor countries at the Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing between the northern Gaza Strip and Israel. He appealed for “contacts between donors and Israel to obtain the unblocking of the funds due to the Palestinian Authority”. The Minister added that the PA needed these funds because it faced a deficit of US$20 to 30 million every month. (AFP)

In an overnight operation in and around Nablus, Israeli forces destroyed the homes of two Palestinian militants, suspected of being responsible for the latest attacks at the “Immanuel” settlement and in Tel Aviv, and detained 21 male relatives for possible deportation to the Gaza Strip. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said the authorities were awaiting the green light for the deportation from Attorney-General Elyakim Rubinstein. Asked if he supported such a measure, Mr. Peres told Israel Radio he did so, “if legally possible”. B’Tselem stated it would be illegal under international law. PA Minister Saeb Erakat said deportations are in contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention and “a war crime”. Hamas said in a statement it would respond to such a tactic with “a message of explosions and destruction into every place where [Hamas] cells, seekers of martyrdom, can reach”. It was later reported on Israeli Army Radio that Attorney-General Rubinstein, during a meeting with the IDF’s chief military prosecutor and security officials, had said the expulsion of family members was only possible in cases of “tangible evidence of their direct involvement in terrorist activity”. Mr. Rubinstein, however, had given his green light to the destruction of homes belonging to relatives of suicide bombers or other Palestinian militants suspected of planning attacks, the radio said. (AFP, DPA, Ha’aretz, The Jerusalem Post, Reuters)

In an interview with Israel Radio Foreign Minister Peres said last week’s decision by Public Security Minister Uzi Landau to close down the offices of the Palestinian official for Jerusalem affairs, Sari Nusseibeh, had been a mistake of the first order, which had caused “outraged responses” in the US and had brought no gain to Israel. He thought the other Government Ministers also opposed this unilateral act of Minister Landau, which had not been approved by the Cabinet, as did the majority of Israelis. “There was no need for such an act and the documents that were found there did not justify an act of such magnitude”, Mr. Peres said. (Ha’aretz)

The IDF had lifted the curfew on Hebron, Jenin, Qalqilya and Tulkarm, military sources said. The curfew had been lifted until further notice, to allow residents to buy basic food supplies, the sources said, adding that the curfew had been maintained in the cities of Bethlehem, Nablus and Ramallah. (AFP)

Prime Minister Sharon had asked the United Nations to provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, the Copenhagen newspaper Politiken reported. It quoted UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process Terje Rød-Larsen as saying that Mr. Sharon had called UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to ask him to help avert a “humanitarian disaster in Gaza and the West Bank”. Mr. Rød-Larsen reportedly declined to add detail to his statement except to say that Secretary-General Annan would put forward “a dramatic initiative”. (DPA)

UNDP’s Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People (PAPP) had signed agreements earlier in the week with several Palestinian community organizations throughout the Occupied Territory to enable some 5,000 youths to participate in sports, arts and crafts and other recreational activities in 35 summer camps during July and August. “Getting youth off the streets during these difficult times of military closures in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and offering them productive, educational activities is consistent with UNDP/PAPP's human development agenda”, said UNDP Special Representative Timothy Rothermel. Among the community organizations that would be working with UNDP/PAPP in setting up the summer camps were the Ramallah Municipality, the Jerusalem Ladies Association, the Palestinian Red Crescent, the Spafford Children’s Center in Jerusalem, the Anglican School in Ramallah and the Palestinian Youth Association in Gaza. (UN News Centre at www.un.org/News)

The Spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a statement that the Secretary-General was “disturbed” by reports that the Israeli Government had again destroyed the homes of Palestinians in the West Bank and was considering the forcible transfer of relatives of suicide bombers from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip. “While he has repeatedly condemned suicide bombings and upheld Israel’s right to defend itself, the Secretary-General wishes to make clear that self-defence cannot justify measures that amount to collective punishments”, the UN statement said. On the same issue, State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said that “ Taking punitive actions against innocent people will not solve Israel’s security problems” and the US intended to raise the issue with the Israelis. (AFP, Reuters, UN News Centre at www.un.org/News)

Amnesty International (AI) called on the Israeli Government not to carry out its planned expulsion of relatives of Palestinian militants from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip, saying that would be illegal as it would amount to collective punishment. Amnesty cited Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention stipulating that persons living in territory under military occupation might not be punished for an offence they had not personally committed. “The unlawful transfer of protected persons constitutes a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court”, the AI statement continued, adding that “Under the Rome Statute, which reflects customary international law, such violations may also constitute crimes against humanity”. The statement said the demolition of the family homes of militants or suspected militants also amounted to collective punishment prohibited by international humanitarian law. (AFP)

“The Danish EU presidency strongly urges the Israeli Government not to deport relatives of Palestinian suicide bombers or suspected terrorists”, said Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller in a statement, adding that “deportations and the demolishing of houses belonging to the families of terror suspects do not contribute in any sensible way to increasing the security of the Israeli population” and “collective punitive measures are neither legitimate nor acceptable”. “Perpetrators of terror acts and their collaborators must be brought to court and punished through fair trials”, Mr. Møller noted. On the same issue, Arab League Secretary-General Amre Moussa said the Israeli plan was an “aggression that has no place in international law”, adding that he had been in contact with some signatories of the Geneva Conventions in order to “study ways of facing these negative developments and ensure the protection of the occupied Palestinian people”. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

The United Arab Emirates Red Crescent Society donated US$27 million to UNRWA for the rebuilding or repair of refugee shelters, camp infrastructure and communal facilities destroyed or damaged during the Israeli offensive on the Jenin refugee camp last April. In addition to the 400 families left homeless in the Jenin camp as a result of the April offensive, 1,500 other shelters had been damaged. The reconstruction of the camp would take two years, UNRWA said. (AFP)

Employees of the PA Interior Ministry, located inside Chairman Arafat’s besieged compound in Ramallah, were allowed to return to work for the first time in a month. (AFP)

Russian envoy Andrei Vdovin visited Chairman Arafat in his Ramallah compound and briefed him on the Quartet talks earlier in the week in New York. (Reuters)

Israeli Ministers Shimon Peres (Foreign Affairs) and Danny Naveh (Minister without Portfolio) met in Jerusalem with PA Ministers Saeb Erakat (Local Government), Salam Fayad (Finance), Abdel Razzek Al-Yahiya (Interior), Maher Al-Masri (Economy, Trade and Industry) and Jamil Al-Tarifi (Civil Affairs). The three-hour talks did not touch political issues, and concentrated on steps to ease the situation of the Palestinian population by helping them without compromising Israeli security, Israel Radio quoted unnamed Israeli sources as saying. The meeting had taken place in a “good atmosphere” and participants had decided that the contacts would continue in the coming days, an aide to Foreign Minister Peres said. Reportedly the PA Ministers had made a request to free Palestinian tax funds withheld by Israel and the Israeli officials had declared readiness to start doing so gradually. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

Dror Atkes of Peace Now said that none of the unauthorized settler outposts in the West Bank, which the Defence Ministry had said had been dismantled since last month, had been actually removed. He added that of the 11 said to have been removed at the end of June “five probably never existed and were just invented, so that they could say, ‘we are dismantling them’, while avoiding any conflict with the settlers”. As for the eight others which were due to be broken up last week, four were still in place. “All the settlers have been evacuated, but it’s possible one caravan may have remained in each of these settlement sites. The important thing is that there are no civilians present”, said Defence Ministry official Yossi Vardi, according to Yediot Aharonot. (AFP)

Sixteen West Bank Palestinians, from among the arrested family members of alleged militants, had withdrawn their legal action at the Israeli Supreme Court against their threatened expulsion to the Gaza Strip after receiving a guarantee they would be given sufficient time to launch an appeal if they were actually to be deported, Israeli security sources said. Israel had reportedly promised to give 12 hours notice of any impending expulsion from the West Bank, thus giving the Palestinians time to lodge an appeal. Meanwhile, the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s legal adviser said in a statement that deporting the families of suicide bombers would not be consistent with international and humanitarian law, but noted that “any and all measures – including deportation to Gaza – can be taken against relatives who were complicit or otherwise involved in the criminal terrorism of suicide attacks, including by aiding and abetting”. (AFP, Reuters)

Two Islamic Jihad militants had been killed overnight, in a clash with Israeli troops near the “Gush Katif” settlement bloc in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said. The IDF said a gun battle had broken out after soldiers had identified two “terrorists” near an army post and two soldiers had been lightly injured in the exchange of fire. (AFP)

Israel reportedly had released about 100 million shekels (US$20 million) to cover outstanding water, electricity and health bills incurred by Palestinians since the beginning of the intifada. In addition following the high-level talks with PA officials, Israel said it was considering releasing, as a first installment, 10 percent of the US$430 million of PA taxes and customs dues withheld. Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Noam Katz said there was “the will to transfer the money”, reiterating the need for a mechanism to ensure the funds would not be used to finance anti-Israel attacks. PA Minister and chief negotiator Saeb Erakat welcomed Israel’s decision to release some of the withheld funds and called for all money owed the PA to be unblocked without further delay. (AFP, Reuters)

The Israeli Interior Ministry said PLO official for Jerusalem Sari Nusseibeh could reopen his office at Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem as he had signed a letter agreeing not to use it to maintain ties with the Palestinian Authority, accept PA funds or act as a PA representative. “We affirm as a university that we are not part of the Palestinian Authority (PA), that we have no intention of being a part of the PA or a representation office for the PA”, Mr. Nusseibeh told reporters. He said he would continue in his role as the PLO commissioner for Jerusalem affairs but would keep his political activities linked to that post strictly separate from his duties as Rector of Al-Quds University. (AFP, Reuters)

The outline for a new security initiative between Israel and the PA, which could lead to a staged Israeli withdrawal from reoccupied zones, had started to emerge from recent high-level talks, Palestinian officials and the Israeli media said. Haaretz reported that PA Interior Minister Abdel Razzek Al-Yahiya had presented Israel with a plan for his security forces to take back control of Palestinian zones reoccupied by the Israeli army as the troops withdrew. The plan provided for an IDF withdrawal to the lines it occupied before the outbreak of the intifada, in September 2000. As part of the plan, the Palestinian security forces were to undergo major changes, being streamlined into two or three organizations. No date had been given for the start of the Israeli withdrawal, although Palestinian officials had said the army would probably start by leaving quiet areas such as Bethlehem and Hebron. According to Ha’aretz, the IDF would guarantee not to hit security installations if the redeployment went according to the plan. The Al-Yahiya proposal reportedly also included means of ensuring financial transparency in the PA, such as placing all funds in a single bank account and US involvement in developing ways to unfreeze the hundreds of millions of PA dollars withheld by Israel. Yediot Aharonot said another plan, promoted by EU High Representative Javier Solana, would have all groups linked to Fatah announcing a “unilateral end to all hostilities against soldiers and civilians” in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The ceasefire would then be joined by Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, “with the support of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia”. A Palestinian security official said the PA was in contact with the militant Islamic organizations to discuss curbing the violence but no concrete results had been reached. (AFP)

The humanitarian situation in the Palestinian areas, either re-occupied or cut off from the world, was “catastrophic”, PA Local Government Minister and chief negotiator Saeb Erakat told reporters in Ramallah. He quoted a new US-Government funded study prepared by John Hopkins University as warning that figures from the Palestinian areas reveal tragic developments in living and health standards. According to the study, more than 50 per cent of Palestinian children under age five suffered from malnutrition and 40 per cent were anaemic. In addition, 70 per cent of the population lived below the poverty line of US$2 per day. About 60 per cent were in need of food aid, while 30 per cent currently lived off food handouts. “These figures reveal a human catastrophe which the Palestinian people live today”, Minister Erakat said and called on the international community to put an end to the deteriorating situation. He added that the IDF had destroyed, either partially or totally, 16,253 Palestinian homes since 28 September 2000. Destruction of homes, as well as the threat of deportation of families of Palestinian militants, constituted crimes against humanity and war crimes, Mr. Erakat said. (AFP, DPA)

Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin told reporters in the Gaza Strip that Hamas would consider halting suicide attacks if Israel withdrew from West Bank cities and took other measures such as stopping aggression and house demolitions, the release of prisoners and an end to assassinations. “Once the occupation and all those measures against our people stop, we are ready to study totally stopping martyrdom operations, in a positive way”, Sheikh Yassin said. (Reuters)

An Israeli F-16 reportedly fired a missile on the apartment block where Sheikh Salah Shehade, the commander of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, stayed. Fifteen Palestinians were presumed dead and at least 145 wounded, and a crowded city block was demolished. The dead included the commander, his wife and daughter, his deputy commander and nine children in neighbouring houses. The youngest dead was aged two months and 15 of the wounded were in serious condition, Shifa Hospital doctors said. Residents and rescue teams continued to comb the wreckage in the morning for people who might still be trapped under wreckage. The strike came less than twenty-four hours after the Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin made an unprecedented public call for a cease-fire with Israel which was considered the culmination of long negotiations between the PA and the Hamas leadership, aimed at achieving a ceasefire between the Palestinians and Israel, putting an end to suicide bombings and paving the way to a resumption of some kind of political process. Prime Minister Sharon described the air strike as a “great success” and said Israel had “no interest in striking civilians” and was “always sorry over civilians who were struck.” Deputy Defence Minister Dalia Rabin-Pelosof resigned from the Government, charging the Sharon Government with destroying the life work of the late Yitzhak Rabin, her father. (CNN, Gush Shalom, Reuters)

The following statement was issued by the Spokesman of the United Nations Secretary-General on 22 July 2002:

The Secretary-General deplores the Israeli air attack that took place late tonight in the Gaza Strip, reportedly leaving 10 persons dead and more than 100 injured, including women and children.

Israel has the legal and moral responsibility to take all measures to avoid the loss of innocent life; it clearly failed to do so in using a missile against an apartment building. The Secretary-General calls on the Government of Israel to halt such actions and to conduct itself in a manner that is fully consistent with international humanitarian law.

The Secretary-General is deeply concerned about the possible consequences of this attack, and urges the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority to do all in their power to restore safety and security for the civilian population on both sides.

(SG/SM/8316)

The Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Abdul Rahman al-Attiya said after meeting President Chirac that he saw “several positive signs” following the meeting of the Quartet last week. “We have identical views concerning the situation in the Middle East,” Mr. Al-Attiya said. The same day in Beirut, Saudi FM Prince Saud al-Faisal called for Arab cooperation with the Quartet, saying such cooperation should be based on the Saudi peace initiative. (AFP)

“I join with the Secretary-General in deploring the Israeli action on the night of 22 July, which left 11 people dead and more than a hundred wounded”, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said. “Under international human rights and humanitarian law the reckless killing of civilians is absolutely prohibited, regardless of the military significance of the target being attacked.” Mrs. Robinson went on to point out that Israel, as a democratic society, “must not abandon its core standards and values, even in the face of the serious security threat to its own civilian population,” adding that the assassination policy pursued by Israel was in conflict with democratic standards and unlawful under international law. (UNHCHR website)

“President [Bush] has said before Israel has to be mindful of the consequences of its actions to preserve the path to peace and the president believes this heavy handed action does not contribute to peace,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters. Mr. Fleischer rejected comparisons between the missile strike and American attacks in Afghanistan that have killed civilians, saying “It is inaccurate to compare the two, because the United States, because of an errant bomb, a mistake in a mission, has occasionally engaged in military action that we very regrettably included losses of innocent lives… This was a deliberate attack on the site, knowing that innocents would be lost in the consequences of the attack,” he said, adding that President Bush still remained a strong backer of Israel. (Ha’aretz, Reuters)

EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana said in a statement that he “strongly condemn[ed] the death of innocent civilians in last night’s attack against Gaza.” Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency, told Ritzau news agency the Israeli attack was “completely unacceptable,” while European Commission President Romano Prodi branded it “an act of war that fuels despair and will make the work to achieve peace much, much more difficult.”

Chairman Arafat said the attack in Gaza was “a massacre and an awful crime carried out against our innocent children.” Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said “It is considered a war crime in the full meaning of the word in that it clearly targeted peaceful civilians,” as the “bombing a residential building was done with the clear knowledge that it would lead to civilian victims,” the official Middle East News Agency reported. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, in Cairo for talks, called the strike a “repulsive” act. Amre Moussa, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, said in a statement that the strike demanded “immediate international movement” to protect the Palestinian people and it represented a challenge to the Quartet. (DPA, Reuters)

The IDF said its troops had shot dead two Palestinian gunmen near the road junction of Kissufim in the Gaza Strip. The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad, claimed responsibility for this operation that targeted an Israeli collective farm near the Gaza Strip. In the West Bank, Israel soldiers killed three Palestinian gunmen near Nablus and Israel Radio said they were involved in a Palestinian ambush of a bus near the Jewish settlement of “Emmanuel” a week ago. The Israeli military sources said three Palestinians wearing IDF uniforms and carrying assault rifles and hand grenades were killed in a clash near the village of Tell southwest of Nablus. (Reuters)

The Offices of both Prime Minister Sharon and Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer said that the missile attack on Gaza the previous day had been approved on the basis of Israeli intelligence assessments that there were no civilians around senior Hamas militant Sheikh Salah Shehade. Reports in the Israeli media said intelligence officials spoke of only four people in the building, which housed Mr. Shehade – an assessment, which differed sharply from that of the Palestinians, who pointed out that the targeted three-storey apartment block was fully occupied. According to Ha’aretz , before the decision to launch the attack was made, Israeli security officials had presented an assessment, which said the bomb would have only a “ minor” effect on nearby buildings. Israeli sources said several previous operations targeting Mr. Shehade had been cancelled because of the danger of civilian casualties. Military sources were quoted by Israel Radio as saying the decision to use a F-16 warplane to drop an one-ton bomb on Mr. Shehade’s house was a “mistake”. “The central error was that we used weaponry that anyone involved in the decision-making process should have known could harm innocent people living in the area”, said Haim Ramon, Chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee. Both the IDF and the Shin Bet internal security service had reportedly opened investigations into the strike. (DPA)

Palestinians searching the ruins of Gaza City apartments hit by the Israeli air strike on 22 July had found the bodies of two more children, aged around one and four, under the rubble, witnesses and medics said. The discovery brought the toll of the missile attack to 17 people, including 11 children aged between 13 years and two months. (AFP)

PA Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said Palestinian groups had held talks and had “even reached an understanding where suicide bombing [would] stop on condition that the Israelis [withdrew] from Palestinian cities and that Israeli assassination operations and arrests [would] stop … but apparently Israel was aware of this understanding and they carried out their attack in Gaza to foil this understanding”. (AFP)

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in a statement strongly condemned the 22 July Israeli missile strike on Gaza City and urged the international community to “adopt a clear position and apply pressure on Israel to stop its brutal attacks against the Palestinian people” and to provide protection for the Palestinians. (AFP)

Foreign Minister Peres told the BBC that Israel would investigate what went wrong with the Gaza City missile attack and would draw the necessary conclusions. Despite escalating tensions, Mr. Peres said Israel intended to hold more talks with PA officials on easing the hardship of the Palestinian population. “No decision has yet been taken. The Israeli Cabinet expressed its desire to see discussions go ahead. We are examining the question on our side”, Samir Rantissi, an advisor to PA Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, told AFP. (AFP, Reuters)

An Israeli opposition leader, Yossi Sarid (Meretz), said that when he served in previous governments, Israel had vetoed operations like the Gaza City missile attack, because civilian casualties were likely. “There are things that a country simply cannot do unless it wants to risk committing state-sponsored terrorism”, Mr. Sarid wrote in an opinion piece in Yediot Aharonot . (Reuters)

Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, spiritual leader of Hamas, told Spain’s ABC newspaper his movement had been ready to declare a truce “on certain conditions, not only an Israeli withdrawal [from Palestinian areas]” before the Gaza missile attack. “However, after what happened, the only worthy course left is holy war”, he added. The military wing of Hamas said in a statement it had fired missiles at Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip overnight in a “humble and modest” first step of retribution, a “drop in the sea of blood which the Zionists will drink”. “The [Izz ad-Din al-Qassam] Brigades call all fighters in occupied Palestinian cities and villages in West Bank, Gaza Strip and 1948 lands to be ready to strike the Zionists at any place and time”, the statement added. Two people had been slightly injured in the Brigades’ missile attacks on the settlements, the IDF said. (AFP, Reuters)

A Peace Now survey conducted by the Hopp Research company, and supervised by a committee of professors from Tel Aviv University, on households in every Israeli settlement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip exceeding 150 inhabitants and in most of the smaller ones showed that a majority of Jewish settlers would accept a government decision to withdraw from settlements. The survey polled 3,200 Israelis in 127 settlements. Sixty-eight per cent of those polled recognized the authority of Israel’s democratic institutions to decide on a withdrawal and would conform with such a decision. Six per cent would oppose the decision using illegal means, while 26 per cent would “obey such a decision following a struggle by legal means”. The survey, which was carried out over a period of three months, also revealed that a 59 per cent majority of settlers would choose financial compensation as their preferred option in case of a withdrawal, while 10 per cent would favour being relocated in Israel. 9 per cent would insist on remaining in their settlement, while 23 per cent said they would choose to be relocated in another settlement in the Occupied Territory. At a news conference, academics involved in the preparation of the survey said settlers who wanted to leave now because of the intifada were effectively being held hostage by the Israeli Government, which offered no financial breaks, and the settlers themselves could not find buyers for their homes or afford new homes in Israel. “The settlers, with the exception of a very small extremist minority, will not be an obstacle to a peace agreement”, Peace Now concluded in the survey. Asked about the poll, Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, a spokesman for “YESHA”, the main settler umbrella group, said Peace Now “[saw] it as their sacred challenge to get Jewish communities dismantled”. He noted that the number of settlers had risen by 7.7 per cent since January 2001 and “many more are coming”. Professor Dan Jacobson of Tel Aviv University, who helped carry out the Peace Now poll, said while the number of houses being built in existing settlements was on the increase, the settler population was actually dropping. (AFP, Reuters)

Following a request by the Permanent Representative of Saudi Arabia to the United Nations, in his capacity as Chairman of the Arab Group for the month of July 2002, the Security Council held a formal meeting on “The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question”. In the course of the meeting statements were made by 34 Member States, Palestine, the Permanent Observer of the League of Arab States to the United Nations and the Acting Chairman of the General Assembly’s Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. No action was taken by the Council. (Journal of the United Nations, 25 July 2002 (No. 2002/142))

The Knesset adopted a law, backed by Prime Minister Sharon and Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit, blocking payments to Palestinians either wounded or suffering financial loss as a result of the Israeli army’s military operations. Israel had previously made payments to those subjected unfairly to military action. The new law would protect the IDF from having to pay damages in case of “war operations”. Palestinians had reportedly brought 6,000 claims for damages during the first intifada (1987-1993). Several hundred more claims have been presented since the second intifada began in September 2000, but most have been rejected. (AFP)

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the US Administration had warned Israel about violating US arms export control laws. Those laws require the State Department to report to Congress if it believes that there has been a “substantial violation” of the terms of sale of the weapons which prohibit their use for anything other than “legitimate self-defense or internal security”. “We have not made a report like this since the current violence began, but we made quite clear that we are seriously concerned about some of the Israeli tactics”, Mr. Boucher said. “We continue to watch and monitor Israeli actions very carefully and we urge Israel to consider the consequences of actions”, he added. (AFP)

President Bush’s supplemental budget request for the war on terror was approved by the US Congress and inter alia contained provisions for US$200 million in assistance to Israel in its effort to combat international terrorism and US$50 million in humanitarian aid for residents of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, in the latter case strictly prohibiting assistance to the Palestinian Authority. (AFP, Reuters)

An IDF reserve lieutenant colonel was charged in an Israeli military court with endangering a Palestinian youth’s health and behaving inappropriately during a search for militants in the West Bank. His trial and that of a sergeant who assisted him in the alleged crimes would begin in the next few days. According to the indictment, the officer forced the grown son of a wanted militant to strip naked during a search for weapons in his house and threatened to kill him unless he provided information. The same officer is also accused of using a Palestinian woman as a “human shield” during a house-to-house search. The incidents had taken place at the village of Doha, near Bethlehem, last April and the military police had begun investigations after soldiers from the battalion submitted a complaint against their commander. The IDF said in a written statement it viewed the case with the utmost seriousness and had begun to implement “a series of significant educational steps in order to prevent these types of incident from reoccurring”. (DPA, Reuters)

A rabbi was killed and an Israeli man was seriously wounded when their car came under fire near the “Alei Zahav” settlement, close to Qalqilya. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades and the Popular Army Front-Return Battalions both said they had carried out the attack, in statements issued in the West Bank and in Beirut respectively. The second statement said the operation came “as a continuation of the armed struggle and as a response to the bombardment of our people in Gaza and the assassination of [Hamas military wing] leader Sheikh Salah Shehade”. Palestinian witnesses said that soon after the ambush troops had arrested four Palestinians in Qalqilya, including a militant leader, and that an army bulldozer had demolished the house where he had been found. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

A meeting in Tel Aviv between Foreign Minister Peres and representatives of the diplomatic Quartet focused on ways to ease the hardship of Palestinians. US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer, who participated in the meeting, reportedly described the conditions in the Palestinian areas as a “ humanitarian disaster” and called on Israel to increase freedom of movement within these areas. Israeli media reported that Israel had received a stern message from the US saying talk about easing restrictions on the Palestinians was not enough and promises had to be implemented. Mr. Peres told the Quartet officials Israel was interested in helping the Palestinians and its confidence in the PA was “very low”. Improving the Palestinians’ quality of life depended on security for Israelis, he said. Israel had earlier announced its decision to transfer US$45 million, or about 8 per cent of the Palestinian tax and customs revenues withheld, apparently abandoning its initial demand for a mechanism of transparency and accountability to be set up, preferably under US-led supervision, before any payment could be made to the PA. Some US$15 million would reportedly be transferred to the PA by the coming weekend. The announcement was greeted by EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten as “a small but very welcome first step towards improving the situation in the Palestinian territories”. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

Speaking after talks in Paris with President Chirac, President Mubarak said the recent Israeli strike on a residential area in Gaza City had been a deliberate attempt by Prime Minister Sharon to sabotage efforts “under way by Palestinian officials and by Hamas to achieve a cessation of violence, followed by reforms [of Palestinian institutions] and an Israeli retreat”. President Chirac said the French and Egyptian positions were in complete agreement on issues including the Middle East and said he backed the Egyptian view that Chairman Arafat was the only viable negotiator for the Palestinian side. (DPA, Reuters)

In a communiqué issued at the end of an emergency meeting of the permanent representatives of the Arab League’s Member States in Cairo, convened at the request of the Palestinian Authority, the Arab League appealed to the United Nations to send an international force to protect civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and guarantee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from all Arab occupied territories. The communiqué strongly condemned the Israeli missile attack in Gaza City on 22 July, saying it was proof of Israel’s “aggressive” character and their “ rejection of all efforts aimed at achieving peace in the region”, and called upon the Security Council “to transform the wave of international condemnation of this Israeli crime into deterrent steps against Israel”. It claimed that the aim of the Israeli operation was to sabotage ongoing efforts to lower tensions, adding that this was further evidence that Israel was the source of the “violence” and “terrorism” raging in the region. It urged all countries “to stop the export of weapons, particularly the F-16, to Israel, which uses it to strike Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps”. The communiqué said the world should consider “crimes perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinian people as state terrorism and the massacre in Gaza as a war crime”. The office of the Arab League’s Secretary General was asked to help bring “the perpetrators of the war crimes against the Palestinian people, particularly those responsible for the Gaza massacre” before an international tribunal. The communiqué “reaffirmed the legitimate right of the Palestinian people to resist Israeli occupation”, and appealed to Arab countries to extend “all forms of material and moral support in order to consolidate the steadfastness of the Palestinian people”. The Arab League delegates renewed their support for the “legitimate” Palestinian leader Chairman Arafat and pledged to continue to help him in his “ legitimate struggle” until the end of the occupation and the establishment of a Palestinian State. (AFP, DPA)

The Palestinian group LAW and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) described the Israeli Government’s “targeted killings” of Palestinian militant and political leaders as a “war crime” and urged the Israeli Supreme Court to outlaw them. They accused Prime Minister Sharon and the IDF of making “a premeditated decision, in cold blood, to drop a one-ton bomb in the midst of a crowded, poorly-built residential area for the purpose of assassinating a man whose execution violates international law and Israeli law”. This week’s Gaza strike was “not a lesser crime than sending a suicide bomber armed with an explosive belt into a bus”, the two groups argued. (AFP)

A total of 1,649 Palestinians, including 311 children under the age of 18, have been killed since the intifada broke out in September 2000, the Palestinian Center for Statistics said. The Center’s report also said, without giving figures, that children accounted for a third of the number of wounded. The next day, the IDF said in the same period Palestinian attacks had killed 577 people, of whom 178 were soldiers, while the majority were civilians, including Israeli settlers and some 30 foreigners; 265 were killed in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, while 312 were killed inside Israel, mostly in suicide bombings. (AFP)

At an emergency meeting with Finance Minister Silvan Shalom and the President of the Association of Contractors and Builders in Israel, Samuel Olpiner, Prime Minister Sharon authorized Housing Minister Natan Sharansky and Director-General of the Prime Minister’s Office Avigdor Yitzhaki to find solutions for the manpower shortage in the construction industry, with the focus on allowing more Palestinians back into Israel to work in construction. Mr. Sharon said that more Palestinian laborers would be allowed to enter Israel, despite the tight closure on the territories, and the possibility of letting the Palestinians spend nights at the building sites would be considered. (Ha’aretz)

A rocket hit an Israeli village just outside Gaza, causing some damage but no casualties, according to an IDF spokeswoman, who also said Palestinian gunmen had opened fire on two army posts on the same evening, one near the “Neve Dekalim” settlement just outside Khan Yunis, and one near the town of Rafah. Afterwards, in its first incursion into Gaza since March, seven Israeli tanks and three bulldozers moved nearly 1 km into Palestinian-controlled territory around Al-Zeitun village, near the “ Netzarim” settlement and close to Gaza City, opening fire with tank shells and heavy machine-guns, Palestinian witnesses and security sources said. In an exchange of fire with Israeli soldiers , four Palestinians were injured, two seriously. The next day, a bulldozer flattened a small Palestinian military intelligence position and a metal workshop, and soldiers blew up another workshop. (AFP, DPA, Ha’aretz)

Palestinian security officials said a Palestinian man was shot and killed by IDF troops while standing in his kitchen in the city of Qalqilya. They said soldiers were firing live ammunition as they searched houses, and that the man had been hit in the head. (Ha’aretz)

An anti-tank missile was fired at an armored bus used by Israeli settlers on the “Karni-Netzarim” road in the Gaza Strip. The bus was heavily damaged but no injuries were reported. Five civilians and two soldiers were in the bus, an IDF statement said. In separate incidents, f our Israelis, including a child, were killed in two shooting attacks south of Hebron. In one attack, three passengers in a car at the Zif intersection were shot at and killed. In the second attack, one person was killed when shots were fired at a vehicle near the “Carmel” settlement. One person was seriously wounded and two others were moderately hurt.(AFP, Ha’aretz)

Palestinian gunmen opened fire on the “Gadid” settlement in the Gaza Strip, injuring an Israeli soldier, an IDF spokesman said, adding that there was also a mortar attack at an Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip, which caused no injuries. (AFP)

A 14-year-old Palestinian girl was shot and killed, and her brother wounded, by Israeli settlers while standing on their balcony in the Shaludi quarter in the Old City of Hebron. An Israeli funeral procession was on its way through the Old City from the Cave of Patriarchs to the Jewish cemetery when local Palestinians, who were confined to their homes at the time, reportedly started throwing stones at the settlers who responded with live fire. Eleven Palestinians were wounded. Israel Radio said at least 15 police officers were also hurt in scuffles with settlers, and four Israelis arrested. The incident took place despite heavy security precautions taken before the funeral was allowed to proceed. Palestinians also said they could not bring the girl to the hospital for several hours after the deadly injury was sustained. (Arutz 7, LAW, Reuters)

Prime Minister Sharon’s office announced in a statement the appointment of Foreign Minister Peres for the coordination of all assistance to the civilian population in the PA territories and ensuring that “activities of all aid agencies were comprehensive, uninterrupted and as unimpaired as possible.” Prime MinisterSharon instructed the IDF and the other Israeli security services “to work toward the facilitation of daily life for the civilian population not involved in terrorism by limiting of curfew hours; the partial lifting of roadblocks; the easing of conditions for entry into Israel by businessmen and merchants; the simplifying of inspection procedures for Palestinians employed in Israel; the expansion of fishing zones in the Gaza Strip; the improved passage of public transportation; the enabling of free passage – as much as possible – for international aid organizations, and permitting 12,000 Palestinians to work in Israel.” Prime Minister Sharon also ordered a portion of the tax funds withheld by Israel be immediately transferred to the PA. These funds will be handed over to the personal supervision of the PA Minister of Finance, who has committed to use them exclusively for the benefit of the Palestinian population not involved in terrorism, the statement further said. (http://www.pmo.gov.il/english/)

Residents of Mazra al-Sharkiya, a village east of Ramallah, said a Palestinian was killed and another wounded by Israeli tank machine-gun fire. Israeli military sources said the men had attacked an army patrol with concrete blocks. Nine Palestinians, including a local Islamic Jihad leader, were arrested the same day by Israeli troops in sweeps across the West Bank, and a house of an assassinated Palestinian was demolished in Jenin. (AFP, LAW)

Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian belonging to the Hamas movement, who, according to the IDF was on his way to fire a “Qassam” rocket at the “Dugit” settlement north of Gaza City. In the south of the Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers injured four Palestinians during a brief incursion into the town of Khan Yunis. (DPA)

After meeting US civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson, Chairman Arafat said that he was still working on a plan for a ceasefire despite Israel’s air attack on Gaza on 22 July which had “completely destroyed” talks between Fatah and Hamas to secure a unilateral ceasefire. Mr. Arafat said that the “peace process [was] the only way forward to finish the Israeli occupation and have a Palestinian State far from violence, far from state terrorism, bloodshed and far from suicide bombings.” (AFP)

The IDF had shot and killed an armed Palestinian who had broken into the “Itamar” settlement near Nablus and stabbed one of the settlers, an army spokesman said. Hours later, masked gunmen shot dead two Israeli settlers in the area of Jamma’in, near Nablus. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades took responsibility for the shooting. (AFP, DPA, The Jerusalem Post)

A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up inside a sandwich shop in Jerusalem, killing himself and wounding five people, none of them seriously. Police said the bomber was a 17-year-old Palestinian from Bethlehem. (AFP, DPA, The Jerusalem Post, Reuters)

Reverend Jesse Jackson called on President Bush to help end Israeli military occupation and build a Palestinian State, adding that the US could not decide who the Palestinians’ leader should be. He said he had also appealed to Chairman Arafat to “lead the way” to end suicide bombing attacks. (DPA, Reuters)

In a letter sent to PA Planning and International Cooperation Minister Nabil Shaath and Finance Minister Salam Fayad on 15 July, EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten said the European Commission intended to extend the EU’s monthly aid of €10 million for another three months, until October, but that further funding would be subject to the Palestinians meeting a set of new conditions, Commission sources said, adding that both PA Ministers had on 17 July accepted the conditions. These inc luded a demand for greater transparency in public sector employment, ensuring that recruitment was limited to the absolute necessary; enhancement of the independence of the Auditor General’s office, which would provide regular reports to the PA President and the Palestinian Legislative Council; a monthly detailed list of expenses by each PA Ministry, beginning in September; the creation of a Palestinian Investment Fund, which would take over the management of commercial operations from the Palestinian Commercial Service Company by 31 December 2002 and would be managed “by an accountable board that [would] be subjected to the most stringent standards of disclosure and auditing”. (AFP, DPA)

Saudi Arabia had transferred US$15.4 million to a special Arab League account created in support of the Palestinian Authority, Saudi Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf told the media. This was the final installment of the Saudi contribution to the account set up by Arab leaders at their Beirut Summit in March in order to provide the Palestinian Authority with US$55 million a month over six months to help it cope with the consequences of Israel’s blockade of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Saudi Arabia had already made two similar payments in April and June, bringing to US$46.2 million the total amount it had contributed. (AFP)

In a letter to Prime Minister Sharon, Reporters Without Borders’ Secretary-General Robert Menard asked Israel to release five Palestinian journalists, whose arrest was “completely arbitrary”. Among the five were an AFP photographer and a Reuters television soundman, who had been arrested separately in late April. The three other journalists held were correspondents for regional newspapers. “The authorities say two of them helped terrorist organizations, but they have offered no proof of this. The three others have not even been told why they are being held. Some of the five have now been imprisoned for more than three months in very bad conditions”, Mr. Menard said. (AFP)

Colonel Moshe Givati, security advisor for the settlements to Israeli Public Security Minister Uzi Landau, had said that the rioting that had broken out in Hebron on 28 July and had resulted in the killing of a 14-year-old Palestinian girl, after the funeral of a settler slain by Palestinian gunmen, was a “pogrom against the Arabs of Hebron, with no provocation on the Palestinian side”, Ha’aretz reported that Colonel Givati was at the funeral and said he had seen “brutal acts” by the settlers, dismissing their claim that they were acting in self-defence after Palestinian provocations. “At most, and I even doubt that, a small rock was thrown from the direction of the Palestinians. And that was enough. That was the signal for the thugs to charge”, he told the daily. He said most of the troublemakers were from hardline settlement outposts set up near the northern West Bank and “For some reason they were all carrying army-issue weapons, and they charged into the Palestinian houses. Meanwhile, Israeli public radio reported that Israeli police had arrested another Israeli in connection with the Hebron riots. Four others arrested earlier had been conditionally released, as police had not been able to identify which of the detainees had shot and killed the Palestinian teenager, the radio said. Israeli police were cooperating with their Palestinian counterparts to deal with the damage done by Jewish settlers during the rioting, it added. (AFP)

An explosion in a cafeteria at Hebrew University’s Frank Sinatra International Students Center in Jerusalem killed at least seven people and injured more than 80, several of them seriously. The military wing of Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, saying this was in revenge for last week’s missile strike in Gaza that had killed its commander and 14 other Palestinians, including nine children. The Palestinian Authority “absolutely condemn[ed]” the bombing and said it considered Prime Minister Sharon “as being responsible for this cycle of terror” and accused “Sharon’s army [of] continuing its policy of destruction, killing and collective punishment”. President Bush condemned the attack at Hebrew University “in the strongest terms”, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said, and described it as “a horrific act of terror”. Nevertheless, the President was “still determined to focus on finding a way to achieve peace in the Middle East”, Mr. Fleischer noted. (DPA, Reuters)

Shortly before the explosion at Hebrew University, the Israeli security cabinet had decided on a package of steps to be taken against families of suicide bombers. Reportedly the measures include deportation, in accordance with guidelines set earlier this month by the Israeli Attorney-General, house demolitions, property expropriation and trials for relatives who knew of planned attacks and did not stop them. An Israeli security source said one of the relatives detained earlier this month had been found to fit the Attorney-General’s criterion of complicity and would be deported to the Gaza Strip, probably later in the day. Chairman Arafat’s advisor Nabil Abu Rudeineh called the security cabinet’s decision “a dangerous escalation” that damaged peace efforts. (DPA, Ha’aretz,, Reuters)

The IDF blew up a building housing the local headquarters of the Palestinian Legislative Council in Jenin, saying 300 kg of improvised explosives had been found there. “The discovery of the explosives laboratory in the office of the Palestinian Legislative Council is further proof that the Palestinians have not stood by their written obligation to stamp out violence”, said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Sofer. Palestinian witnesses said the explosion had also made several families of refugees in the complex homeless again, who had fled fighting in the Jenin refugee camp during the Israeli offensive in April. (Reuters)

PA Finance Minister Salam Fayad said in a statement that the Palestinian Authority had received a “first payment of the money held by Israel since the start of the intifada ” to the amount of 70 million shekels (about US$14.7 million). “ Minister Fayad denied there were any conditions attached in how to use the money and denied reports in the Israeli media that he was refusing to accept the money. The Palestinian Authority rejects any condition set by Israel on the use of the money”, the statement added. (AFP, DPA)

Responding to the Hebrew University bomb attack, a spokesman for the Secretary-General said in a statement that Mr. Annan “condemns utterly all such terrorist attacks against civilians”. The Secretary-General “ once again urges all concerned to end the cycle of violence, revenge and retaliation, and calls on the parties to return to the path of negotiations on a permanent settlement”, the statement added. (DPA, UN News Centre at ww.un.org/News)

Speaking on behalf of the Council of Europe, Secretary General Walter Schwimmer condemned the latest suicide bombing in Jerusalem that killed seven, including five US citizens in a crowded cafeteria at Hebrew University. In a statement, Mr. Schwimmer said that “violence [was] gaining the upper hand” in the Middle East and called on Palestinian and Israeli officials to protect their youth, who were “used and abused in the cycle of violence and retaliation.” (AFP)

Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer approved a military response to the latest suicide bombing. The planned response would take place “soon”, media reports said without giving further details. (DPA, Ha’aretz, The Jerusalem Post)

—–

Chronological Review of Events/July 2002 – DPR review

Subscribe to our mailing list

Chronological Review of Events/July 2002 – DPR review

Share This Page, Choose Your Platform!

Subscribe to our mailing list