Chronological Review of Events/August 2002 - DPR review

D i v i s i o n f o r P a l e s t i n i a n R i g h t s

Chronological Review of Events Relating to the

Question of Palestine

MONTHLY MEDIA MONITORING REVIEW

August 2002

The United Nations released the Secretary-General’s report on recent events in Jenin and other Palestinian cities. This report was requested by the General Assembly in May (resolution ES-10/10, adopted on 7 May 2002), after the disbandment of the team, which the Secretary-General, supported by the Security Council (resolution 1405 of 19 April 2002), had proposed to send to Jenin to establish the facts on the ground. (The full report entitled: Report of the Secretary-General prepared pursuant to General Assembly resolution ES-10/10, can be found on http://www.un.org/peace/jenin/index.html)

The Secretary-General upon arrival at UNHQ in New York made the following remarks on the Jenin report:

I think the Jenin report is out this morning, and it gives the death toll in each of the cities. And obviously, this is a report about the tragic events, which took place in the Middle East. It is not an on-the-spot investigation. But we built on reports available in the public domain. While some of the facts may be in dispute, I think it is clear that the Palestinian population have suffered and are suffering, the humanitarian consequences which are very severe. And I would hope that both parties would draw the right lessons from this tragic episode and take steps to end the cycle of violence, which is killing innocent civilians on both sides. (UN News Centre at www.un.org/News)

Palestinian Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Nabil Shaath called the report on Jenin an important step. “I know it doesn’t satisfy everybody and it wasn’t done in the way it should have been done. But still it identifies what happened in Jenin as a crime against humanity,” he said. Daniel Taub, a senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official said that the report cleared up misconceptions about an alleged massacre, calling such claims by the Palestinians for “atrocity propaganda.” (The Jerusalem Post, Reuters)

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

The Secretary-General continues to be deeply concerned by reports that the Government of Israel is proceeding with plans to deport from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip relatives of Palestinians known or alleged to be responsible for attacks against Israel. He calls on the Government of Israel to adhere to its obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949). The Secretary-General urges the Government of Israel not to take actions that are inconsistent with international humanitarian law, such as forcible transfer of protected persons, regardless of motive, and collective punishment.

(UN Press Release of 1 August 2002)

President Bush told reporters in the Oval Office before a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah that he was “furious that innocent life was lost” during the latest suicide bombing in Jerusalem the previous day. Asked if he supported Israeli military retaliation for the bomb attack, Mr. Bush said Israel had a right to defend itself “but I say to all parties involved, we must keep the vision of peace in mind.” (Ha’aretz, The Jerusalem Post, Reuters)

Chairman Arafat in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat warned that the Palestinian elections due in January would be postponed if Israel continued their occupation. Mr. Arafat also said he would insist on the presence of foreign independent observers to monitor the upcoming polls, “like in the first elections [1996], which were held under the supervision of 2,000 international observers.” Asked about who might eventually succeed him, Mr. Arafat said the constitution stipulated that Abu Mazen, Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee, would replace him as the head of the PLO. Speaker of the Palestinian Council, Ahmed Qurei would head the Palestinian Authority for 60 days during which presidential elections would be held, Mr. Arafat added. (AFP)

“We appreciate Secretary-General Annan’s efforts in putting together [the Jenin] report. I think it pretty much speaks for itself”, Deputy State Department Spokesman Philip Reeker said, adding that the report’s “clear underlying theme” was “that civilians have suffered far too much”. (AFP)

Human Rights Watch (HRW) senior researcher Peter Bouckaert said that HRW was “very disappointed in the Secretary-General’s report on Jenin, which we feel is fundamentally flawed”. “The only people who can rejoice about this report”, Mr. Bouckaert told AFP, “are those who obstructed the UN from the beginning in its investigation – namely, the Israeli authorities”. While stating that “no massacre of the scale alleged by the Palestinians took place” at the Jenin camp, he said the report had failed to address the “real abuses which did occur”, such as the “deliberate and unlawful killing of civilians, the use of civilians as human shields and the very widespread destruction in the camp”. Thus, instead of clarifying the facts, the report would “only add to the confusion”, he noted. The UN report was also widely criticized by the press in the Gulf States. (AFP)

The IDF destroyed two Palestinian houses, including the home of a suicide bomber in Beit Jala, on the edge of Bethlehem, an army spokesman said. The army also demolished in the Jenin refugee camp a home of an Islamic Jihad militant, the spokesman said. “The destruction of the houses aims to discourage further attacks by making the terrorists and those who send them understand that their acts carry a price,” the spokesman said. The IDF sent tanks into Ramallah earlier in the day and several explosions were heard near Chairman Arafat’s HQ, The Jerusalem Post reported. Details remained unclear. In separate incidents, a nine-year-old Palestinian girl had been shot dead by Israeli troops in a taxi in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, opposite the “Gush Katif” settlement block Palestinian security sources said. Earlier in the day, another Palestinian girl, 6 years old, and an elderly man had died of wounds sustained by Israeli fire last month in the Gaza Strip, hospital officials said. (AFP, DPA, The Jerusalem Post)

One Palestinian was killed and another wounded when Israeli tanks and bulldozers made an incursion into Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian security sources said. The IDF destroyed a house during the operation near the border with Egypt. In a separate incident, a 85-year-old Palestinian woman was killed by Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip. The IDF said she had been walking in the dark near a settlement and had sustained leg wounds, for which she had been treated by medics, but had eventually died. The woman’s son said she had been shot dead asleep in her home, near the “Kissufim” military base, while no clashes were taking place. (AFP, Reuters)

The Israeli Center for the Defense of the Individual said the IDF leadership in the West Bank had announced that two of the 21 Palestinians arrested in mid-July because they were related to militants accused of carrying out attacks on Israelis would be expelled to the Gaza Strip for two years. The two to be expelled, both brothers of alleged militants, were given 12 hours after they had been served notice of their expulsion, to appeal to a military tribunal. If that were turned down, they could reportedly make a final appeal to the Supreme Court. The deportation decrees had been issued following the involvement of the two in assisting their brothers in terrorist activity and not due to their family connection to the terrorists, the IDF said. (AFP)

Israeli troops backed by more than 100 tanks entered Nablus, reportedly in retaliation for the 31 July attack at Hebrew University. Israeli soldiers went from house to house in the Casbah, the Old City, smashing holes in connecting walls to avoid exposure to gunmen outside, as they searched for militants, detaining at least 30 suspects, witnesses said. Three Palestinians were reported dead, two in the Casbah and one, a Hamas militant, in a village on the outskirts of Nablus. The IDF said the Nablus operation was aimed at rooting out a “local terror network”. Israeli media reported that security officials believed the bomb used in the Hebrew University attack had been produced in an explosives laboratory hidden in the warren of alleyways in Nablus’ Casbah. The IDF blew up four houses, two in Nablus, one in Tulkarm and another one in Hebron, at least three of them belonging to relatives of Palestinian militants. Speaking at a press conference in Ramallah, Chairman Arafat condemned the demolitions, which left dozens homeless, as a crime against humanity, and asked for United Nations intervention, saying that “if they are not able to send forces, they should send observers”. (AFP, Reuters)

Commenting on the Secretary-General’s report on Jenin, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher was quoted by MENA as saying “in the end it confirms what we said, that there was aggression against civilians in Jenin and what happened in Jenin could be considered a war crime.” “It’s enough for us what was written in the report,” Mr. Maher added. (AFP)

A 40-year old Palestinian truck driver breaking a curfew in Hebron was shot and killed by the IDF Palestinian medical sources said. (AFP)

A Palestinian suicide bomber exploded an Israeli commuter bus in Safad in the north of Israel, killing 9 people including himself and wounding 45. In a statement issued in Gaza, Hamas said it carried out the attack in further revenge for the Israeli air raid on 22 July. President Bush condemned the attacks, saying: “There are a few killers who want to stop the peace process that we have started. We must not let them.” (AFP, Reuters)

An armed Palestinian was killed on the northern coast of the Gaza Strip near the “Dugit” settlement, an IDF spokesman said in a statement. The Palestinian, wearing a wetsuit, was spotted by an IDF observation post as he left the sea and approached the security perimeter of the settlement, the statement said. He was armed with a assault rifle and grenades. Subsequently the IDF launched an incursion into a Palestinian area near “Dugit”, destroying a holiday camp run by the Palestinian youth ministry and another building, a Palestinian official source said. Some 50 tanks and other armoured vehicles took part in the raid, the source said. In a separate incident a Palestinian opened fire at an Israeli telephone company truck at a Palestinian market in East Jerusalem, in an attack which left three people dead including the gunman, Israeli police said. A second Palestinian, a bystander, was killed in what the police said was an exchange of fire between the gunmen and police at the Damascus Gate of to the Old City of Jerusalem. Paramedics said an additional 14 people were wounded.(AFP, DPA)

The following statement was issued by the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 4 August:

Yet again today – this time, in Safad in the north of Israel – a Palestinian terrorist has needlessly and pointlessly destroyed at least ten lives, including his own, while inflicting injuries on some 50 people and spreading fear and misery among hundreds of friends and relatives. People were also killed when a gunman opened fire in Jerusalem.

Does it need saying, yet again, that these attacks on civilians are immoral and illegal, as well as politically counter-productive?

Every day, it seems, brings fresh news of death, destruction and suffering among innocent civilians, Israeli and Palestinian alike. One side resorts to indiscriminate terror, the other responds with retaliation that is equally devastating in its effects on ordinary people. Each feeds the anger and hatred of the other, and then yet more innocent lives are swept away in the backlash.

What is even worse is that each act of violence delays yet further the only course of action that offers any hope of a lasting respite – namely, a return to negotiations on a political solution to the underlying conflict between the two peoples. We must escape from this endless downward spiral.

I appeal to both sides to refrain from further retaliation. I urge each side not to allow any act by the other to deflect it from the search for peace. I urge both to apply themselves, without further delay, to working out the details of the solution we all know must come sooner or later – the solution called for by the Security Council, of two States, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in secure and recognized borders.

For humanity’s sake, let it come sooner rather than later.

(UN Press Release of 4 August 2002)

The IDF blew up nine houses in the West Bank belonging to families of Palestinians who carried out anti-Israel attacks, the IDF and sources close to the families said. “The destruction of terrorists’ homes is a message to suicide bombers and those who would send them, the IDF said in a statement. (AFP)

Overnight, the IDF shot dead two Palestinian men, one of them reportedly a wanted militant, during a hunt for suspected terrorist militants in the village of Burka, near Nablus. The IDF arrested the head of the Hamas for the Jenin area in the northern West Bank. The man thought to be behind the Safad suicide bombing the IDF and media said. Troops arrested Mazen Fukha overnight in Tubas, southeast of Jenin, an army spokesman said. Six other wanted Palestinians were also arrested, the spokesman said. Sparately, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy was shot dead by the IDF in the village of Balata, near Nablus, Palestinian hospital sources said, and a Palestinian gunman shot at the car of a settler family as they drove towards the city of Ramallah, killing the parents instantly and wounding their children, aged three years and six months. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed responsibility. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

The PA in a statement condemned the Safad suicide bombing and said Prime Minister Sharon’s Government bore responsibility for the cycle of bloodshed. (Reuters)

The IDF said in a statement that “due to the last wave of attacks … it was decided to completely restrict Palestinian movement in the areas of Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarm, Qalqilya and Ramallah, with the exception of medical and humanitarian cases.” Six Israeli tanks blocked the main north-south road to Rafah, cutting it off from the rest of the Gaza Strip. The IDF said it isolated Rafah, “to fight the terrorist infrastructure and thwart future attacks.” Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer in announcing a ”total closure” on the northern West Bank, said that the army was taking “a long list of actions”, without specifying further. One of the action was apparently to blockade the Ramallah HQ of Chairman Arafat. Palestinian spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said in a statement carried by WAFA that the Israelis were preventing anyone, including foreign diplomats and Palestinian officials, from entering the compound. (DPA, Reuters)

A report by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) described a major crisis in the health of young Palestinian children due directly to the 22-month-old intifada, including Israel’s policy of closures in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. More than one in every five Palestinian children, 22.5 per cent of them, suffered from malnutrition, said the report, whose general conclusions had been leaked to the press. The under-five population in the Gaza Strip was the hardest hit, the report said, where the acute and chronic malnutrition rates for that age group had risen to 13.2 per cent and 17.2 per cent respectively in the last two years. (AFP, The Jerusalem Post)

Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai revealed plans to strip two Israeli Arab citizens, one in jail and the other in Lebanon, of their Israeli citizenship, and to cancel the permanent residency status of a third Arab, on the grounds that all three had harmed state security. The measure, which was backed by Prime Minister Sharon, had never been employed by any Israeli interior minister before. (Ha’aretz, The Jerusalem Post)

Foreign Minister Peres and his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Maher made a declaration at a joint news conference in Cairo, following talks with President Mubarak agreeing to pursue political negotiations as the only way to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and bring about a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. Separately, President Mubarak, meeting with Israeli reporters in Cairo, criticised Prime Minister Sharon, saying he had “no political plan. Here and there I hear ‘ideas,’ and ‘thoughts,’ but nothing comes out of these ‘ideas’ except an escalation in violence at the expense of both sides,” Mr. Mubarak said. (DPA, Ha’aretz)

The General Assembly, at its resumed tenth emergency special session, adopted a resolution on illegal Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory by 114 votes to 4, with 11 abstentions (ES-10/11). (Journal of the United Nations, 6 August 2002, No. 2002/150 (Part II))

Israeli Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer, meeting with PA Interior Minister Abdel Razzek Al-Yahiya, presented a “Gaza First” plan, whereby the IDF would slowly withdraw from areas re-occupied since September 2000 as the Palestinians took action against militant groups. Palestinian officials said the plan could also apply to Bethlehem if the situation there remained calm. Palestinians sent conflicting signals over the Israeli proposal. Mr. Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, an aide to Chairman Arafat, said the “Gaza-first” proposal was “totally rejected.” But another senior Palestinian source said the Palestinians had accepted the plan and would hold further talks with Mr. Ben-Eliezer. (AFP, Reuters)

Two Palestinian militants were killed by IDF attack helicopters, reportedly including one wanted for planning a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on 17 July, which had killed five people. The two men were killed as they were returning to a hiding place in a West Bank cave. An Israeli military spokeswoman said that there had been a routine arrest operation in Jabba village. Two suspects had escaped and a chase had ensued in the course of which the two men had been killed. Both belonged to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, according to Palestinian sources. (Reuters)

The Israeli Supreme Court upheld the plan of the IDF to demolish the homes of militants’ relatives who were considered linked to attacks. A three-judge panel ruled that no advance warning of the demolitions needed be given. The judges accepted the argument of the IDF that the demolitions constituted “ military action”, in which the lives of soldiers could be endangered if advance warning was given. (AFP, DPA, The Jerusalem Post)

In a statement carried by WAFA the Palestinian leadership welcomed the previous day’s resolution adopted by the General Assembly’s tenth emergency special session, saying it was “testament to the level of suffering endured by [the Palestinian] people as a result of the Israeli occupation and escalation” and thanking the 114 States that had voted in favour. PA Minister and chief negotiator Saeb Erakat said he hoped the General Assembly would “not make do with passing resolutions” and that the latest one would “actually be implemented by Israel”. “It’s not normal that the international community continues to deal with Israel as a State above the law”, Mr. Erakat told AFP, adding that the PA intended to appeal once again to the UN Security Council to “oblige Israel to halt its crimes against the Palestinian people and withdraw from all occupied towns”. (AFP)

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld reportedly told Pentagon staffers that there was no doubt the PA was “involved with terrorist activities”. He described land that Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war as “ so-called occupied territory” and said that focusing on the question of settlements “misses the point”. “The real point is to get an effective interlocutor”, Mr. Rumsfeld noted, adding that “Maybe it will take some Palestinian expatriates coming back into the region and providing the kind of responsible government that would give confidence, that you could make an arrangement with them that would stick”. PA Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said Secretary Rumsfeld’s comments in effect made him “a representative of the extreme right-wing” of Prime Minister Sharon’s Likud party. (Reuters)

State Department spokesman Philip Reeker told a news briefing in Washington that the US Administration planned to move part of the US consulate general and public affairs offices currently located in East Jerusalem to a more secure site, but declined to say where or when. Ha’aretz quoted unidentified sources as saying the new site would be in the Jewish neighborhood of “Arnona”. It said it was not clear how Palestinians would be guaranteed access to the facility if it was in a Jewish area, given restrictions on their movement. The US has reportedly imposed new rules about how far back from the road its diplomatic buildings must be after twin embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya killed 224 people in 1998. “We’ve been looking to relocate our consulate in East Jerusalem to a more secure site for several years”, Mr. Reeker was quoted as saying. (AFP, Reuters)

An emergency session of the PA Cabinet gave preliminary approval to an Israeli security plan put forward earlier by Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer, providing for a gradual Israeli withdrawal from reoccupied areas, on condition that the Palestinians took over responsibility for preventing attacks by militants from those areas. A later Israeli-Palestinian security meeting ended inconclusively, after the sides were unable to agree where the Israeli withdrawal would begin. Reports in Israel said Israel wanted the withdrawal to begin from Gaza, but Israel Transportation Minister Ephraim Sneh said Israel was objecting to Palestinian insistence on Israeli troops leaving Ramallah. Chairman Arafat’s Advisor Nabil Abu Rudeineh said the meeting had failed, but the talks would continue. (AFP, DPA, Ha’aretz, The Jerusalem Post, Reuters)

IDF General Yitzhak Eitan, head of the Central Command told Israeli public radio that, in its preparation for any possible scenario, the IDF had “ elaborated a plan to restore military administration” in the West Bank, if the situation on the ground deteriorated further. “This could involve a reoccupation [of Palestinian areas], but we do not want that”, the General added. The head of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee Haim Ramon (Labour) said Israel had “de facto reoccupied the Palestinian territories” since 19 June, when Operation Determined Path was launched. He said if the operation continued, the IDF could be obliged to re-impose the military administration, which had been dissolved when the Palestinian Authority was set up in 1994. Restoring a military administration would cost “between three and four billion shekels [US$640 and 850] a year, which would have to be taken from our budget since it almost impossible to levy taxes on the Palestinians given their economic situation”, Mr. Ramon added. (AFP)

In an exchange of fire in Tulkarm, Israeli special forces backed by helicopters shot dead the town’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades chief and one of his lieutenants, witnesses reportedly said. A third Palestinian died in the operation, medical sources said. Israeli sharpshooters killed a Hamas member in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip. A fifth Palestinian, a policeman, died when Israeli soldiers opened fire with automatic weapons during an incursion with some 30 tanks into Beit Lahiya, in the Gaza Strip. A Palestinian man was critically injured by a bullet fired from an Israeli tank posted near the Balata refugee camp, near Nablus, Palestinian medical sources said. The IDF reportedly said they were not aware of any incident in the area. A 13-year-old Palestinian boy sustained serious head injuries when soldiers opened fire at a checkpoint near the “Gush Katif” settlement bloc in the Gaza Strip, medical sources said. The head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in Bethlehem was arrested by Israeli forces and the house he was caught in was dynamited, Palestinian officials said. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

In a statement, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced the appointment of Ms. Catherine Bertini, former head of the World Food Programme, as his Personal Humanitarian Envoy, who would travel to the Middle East this weekend to assess the nature and scale of the humanitarian crisis faced by the civilian population in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. She would consult with UN officials in the area, as well as those of the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement and the donor and non-governmental community, to review assistance activities already under way, or planned, and identify any new measures needed. Ms. Bertini would also meet the Israeli and Palestinian authorities to discuss with them what needed to be done. She would report to the Secretary-General, and through him to the Quartet, on action that should be taken to respond to the humanitarian situation and to prevent it from deteriorating further. (UN News Centre at www.un.org/News)

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) declared that the decisions by Israel to expel families of Palestinian suicide bombers was a breach of human rights. “According to the Geneva Convention, collective punishment is forbidden,” said the ICJ's Secretary General Louise Doswald-Beck who also referred to the Treaty of Rome, the basis of the International Criminal Court, which considers such acts as “war crimes”. (AFP)

Former Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami resigned from the Knesset, saying his Labour Party had betrayed its principles by joining a coalition headed by Prime Minister Sharon. In his resignation letter, Mr. Ben-Ami said that the Labour Party was “an atrophied tail at the service of the Prime Minister’s personal interests,” adding that he did not think this was the time for a military response [to the Palestinian uprising]. “There exist possibilities for a [peace] settlement, but the State has lost its way. It has no direction, no compass,” he wrote. (AFP)

Former PA minister Ziad Abu Ziad called for an immediate halt to Palestinian attacks inside Israel, in an interview with Israeli public radio. “The attacks on civilians in Israel must stop immediately. We must keep this goal in sight so as to be able to resume negotiations,” he said. Asked if the Palestinian Authority could ensure calm if Israeli forces withdrew from Palestinian areas, he said it was possible but only if the PA was allowed to act and if they were not targeted or limited by the IDF. He also added that the PA would then be able to convince Hamas to stop its attacks on Israel “ without making arrests.” (AFP)

The IDF reportedly demolished the family homes of four Palestinian suicide bombers or activists, sources close to the families said. Three were in the Bethlehem area and one in Tubas in the West Bank. Israeli troops and tanks made incursions into the village of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip for the second time in two days, wounding five youths during a clash with Palestinian stone throwers. One of them later died in the hospital. Around 25 tanks and armoured troop carriers moved about 1.5 kilometres into Palestinian-controlled areas, accompanied by four bulldozers, which razed farmland in the area, Palestinian sources said. An IDF spokesman said nine suspects had been arrested before the IDF had vacated Beit Lahia in the afternoon. Palestinian witnesses said the tanks had only withdrawn to the edge of town. (AFP, DPA, Ha’aretz, Reuters)

PA Ministers Erakat, Al-Yahiya and Al-Masri held separate meetings in Washington with Secretary of State Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice. Mr. Powell said after the talks at the State Department that he had reaffirmed President Bush’s commitment to “doing everything possible to find a way forward, recognizing the difficulties that exist and condemning the violence that afflicts the region”. Mr. Erekat said he had been assured by the Secretary of State that “the endgame is specified with a Palestinian State”. He added that the Palestinian side really hoped “to see an action plan that will define the timeline, the mechanism for implementation and the way stations that will take us toward this endgame”. Both sides agreed that one of the most pressing concerns was the increasingly dire situation of the Palestinian population and the need for swift humanitarian aid to counter the “human disaster”, as Mr. Erakat called it. In separate statements to reporters, Minister Erakat stressed Chairman Arafat was the elected leader of the Palestinian people and the delegation represented him and the Palestinian leadership. National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters after Ms. Rice’s meeting with the PA Ministers that Mr. Arafat “was not a topic of discussion” and added that Ms. Rice had reiterated President Bush’s Middle East agenda to the Palestinian officials. (AFP, Reuters, US Department of State website at http://www.state.gov)

In a televised speech at a graduation ceremony at the Israeli National Security College, Prime Minister Sharon said that “To launch a real political process that could lead to peace, there is an obstacle with the gang of corrupt assassins and terrorists that lead the Palestinian Authority”. “ Israel is not at war with the Palestinian people”, Mr. Sharon added. (AFP)

Responding to Mr. Sharon’s speech, Chairman Arafat’s aide Ahmed Abdel Rahman called Mr. Sharon and his Government “a coalition of terror and a gang of killers” and said the Israeli Prime Minister “wanted to intimidate the Americans and to warn them against reaching any agreement with the Palestinian delegation” visiting Washington. “Sharon’s declarations are suitable to most Israeli officials who are war criminals and who must face international justice and be tried for the crimes they perpetrated against our people”, Chairman Arafat’s adviser Nabil Abu Rudeineh said, adding that such declarations “hamper international efforts to come back to the political process”. (AFP, Reuters)

Two Palestinian militants carrying belts of explosives had been arrested by the Israeli army in Qalqilya overnight, an IDF spokesman said. The pair were said to be members of the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, and were on Israel’s wanted list for having carried out anti-Israeli attacks, the spokesman noted, adding that two other Palestinians were detained for questioning. In a separate incident, the IDF had shot dead a Palestinian in the Tulkarm refugee camp, Palestinian sources reported. They said an IDF force had opened indiscriminate fire at people in the street, while Israeli military sources said Palestinians had shot at the force, which returned the fire. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

In an interview with Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera, Chairman Arafat described the high-level US-Palestinian talks in Washington as “positive and constructive” and said it had been agreed that experts from the US, Egypt and Jordan would help overhaul the Palestinian security apparatus. Mr. Arafat also called for a “vigorous and rapid action from the international community, notably the Quartet”, to “ put an end to the current situation in the Palestinian territories”. (AFP, Reuters)

A CIA team had paid a previously secret visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory and had formulated a detailed plan for Palestinian reforms, Israeli media reported. According to Ha’aretz, the team had spent several weeks in the region and had met with top Palestinian security officials, and apparently with Israeli officials as well. It had presented its findings last week to US officials and had recommended that PA security services undergo profound changes in structure, tasks, operations and recruitment programmes. The recommendations were being scrutinized by the Bush Administration, in consultation with Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which had agreed to help implement the reforms. (DPA, Ha’aretz)

Reacting to reports in the Middle Eastern media prompted by an interview that Secretary-General Kofi Annan had given to Israeli television earlier in the week, a spokesman for the Secretary-General recalled in a statement issued in New York that Mr. Annan had “repeatedly and consistently” stated that it was up to the Palestinian people to elect their leaders. “President Arafat has been elected by the Palestinian people and the United Nations will continue to deal with him in this capacity”, said spokesman Fred Eckhard, adding that “On the same basis, the UN will deal with the leaders elected in the Palestinian elections announced for early next year.” (UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/News)

The high-level PA delegation under Minister and senior negotiator Saeb Erakat continued its meetings with US Administration officials in Washington holding talks with Assistant Secretary of State William Burns and officials of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The talks reportedly covered civic and economic reforms within the PA and humanitarian aid for the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza. (DPA)

The IDF issued a statement expressing regret over the death of a Nablus municipality worker, who was driving an electrical repair van through the town’s centre during the curfew, when a tank opened fire on his vehicle. He was hit in the head by bullets and died shortly afterwards at the hospital. The IDF said an initial probe had shown the man had a pass, which allowed him to travel in the city during the curfew. As a result, an investigation had been opened and if any soldiers were found to have acted inappropriately, disciplinary measures would be taken against them. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

An Israeli woman was killed when a gunman raided the “Mekhora” settlement, in the Jordan Valley, some 15 kilometres south-east of Nablus. The IDF said troops had killed the gunman and believed he had been acting on his own. Israeli radio said at least two other Israelis had been wounded in the attack. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

CIA Director George Tenet met PA Interior Minister Abdel Razzek Al-Yahya for about 90 minutes at the CIA headquarters near Washington. They were believed to have discussed a US plan to reshape the Palestinian security services. The CIA had also been quietly working on updating the Tenet security plan for bringing about an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire and creating conditions for resuming regional peace negotiations, according to US officials. A CIA spokesman said the talks had been “useful”, but declined to release details. Members of Mr. Al-Yahya’s team said the Palestinian side was satisfied with the outcome. However, it was later reported that no breakthrough had been achieved regarding the reform of PA security services. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

A Hamas militant opened fire on a group of land surveyors working on the edge of the “Dugit” settlement, in the northern Gaza Strip injuring one man. The Palestinian was later killed in an exchange of fire with Israeli troops. The army was searching for other possible militants in the area. Earlier in the day, a Palestinian civilian had been shot and wounded by Israeli troops in a village on the edge of East Jerusalem. The man had failed to stop when the soldiers demanded to examine his bag. It was later discovered that the bag contained only groceries. Separately, Palestinian officials said two small boys had been injured when an Israeli tank fired a shell from the “Gush Katif” settlement block at a house in the neighbouring Palestinian town of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip. One six-year-old had the fingers of his right hand blown off, while another boy aged seven had been injured by shrapnel, hospital sources said. Israeli tanks staged a brief incursion into Khan Yunis, with troops capturing a number of residents, while Israeli forces also bulldozed Palestinian farmland in Deir el-Balah, just to the north. (AFP, DPA)

Pope John Paul II made an emotional appeal “to the Israeli and Palestine politicians responsible to recover the path of fair negotiations” and asked the international community “to commit itself with greater determination to be present on the ground, offering mediation to create the conditions for a fruitful dialogue between the parties that would accelerate peace”. In his address, delivered at his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, the Pope said “co-existence between the Israeli and Palestinian people cannot result from arms. Neither attacks, nor the walls of separation, nor retaliation, will lead to a just solution to the conflict”. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

Speaking at the weekly Israeli Cabinet meeting, Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer said there were signs that the policy of destroying the family homes of Palestinian militants involved in anti-Israeli attacks was beginning to have a deterrent effect, Israeli public radio reported. There had been a number of instances where parents had tried to convince their children not to get involved in attacks for fear that their house would be destroyed, the Minister reportedly told the Cabinet. In recent weeks, the IDF had destroyed 17 family homes of Palestinians involved in attacks the radio quoted Minister Ben-Eliezer as saying. (AFP)

Tens of Jewish settlers briefly took over two Palestinian houses on the edge of the village of Luban al-Sharqiyah, in the southern West Bank, close to the “Eli” settlement. The settlers, some of them armed, forced out the families in the two houses. There was no gunfire and the settlers were persuaded by Israeli authorities to leave about six hours later. No one had been arrested, but the act was considered a criminal offense and an investigation into the incident had been opened, an Israeli police spokesman said. Reportedly the settlers claimed the two houses had been used by gunmen to kill an Israeli couple early last week. (AFP, DPA)

Ha’aretz reported that the Hebron settlers were using ever more drastic methods to evict the Palestinian population from the divided city. They were able to use violence without being hindered in any way by Israeli police, the newspaper said. Knesset opposition leader Yossi Sarid demanded that Prime Minister Sharon take action against the settlers and re-establish the rule of law in the city. (DPA)

Hundreds of prisoners at an Israeli detention centre in the “Ofra” settlement, near Ramallah, had clashed with their Israeli guards, who had called in armoured vehicles, the prisoners’ families said. A Bethlehem-based Palestinian group said several detainees had been beaten by Israeli troops. Relatives of the prisoners who spoke to them by telephone said detainees also refused to eat their meals. A military spokesman told AFP he did not know of any incidents at the detention centre, where some 500 detainees were being accommodated in tents. More than 2,500 Palestinians were currently being detained by Israel, lawyers said. (AFP)

Israeli troops killed an Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades militant during a raid on the village of Al-Yamoun, near Jenin. An IDF spokesman said soldiers had shot the man after he tried to escape by climbing down a drain pipe outside his family home, when they came to arrest him. The Palestinian’s family said they were asleep in their beds when soldiers burst into the house and detained him. Shortly afterwards they said they heard gunshots and the soldiers later told them they had killed him. (DPA, Reuters)

Israel announced the arrests of several Palestinian militants. Four had been arrested in the village of Rantis, 20 kilometres north-west of Ramallah, seven in Beit Furik, about six kilometres southeast of Nablus, one at the “Gush Katif” settlement block junction in the southern Gaza Strip. Also a Palestinian youth had been arrested in northern Jerusalem, on suspicion he was planning a joint suicide attack with a 16-year-old Palestinian girl who had been arrested last week, Israeli police spokesman Gil Kleiman said. All detainees had been taken for investigation. (AFP, DPA)

Israel’s Supreme Court, in response to an emergency appeal, issued a temporary injunction preventing the deportation of three relatives of Palestinian militants from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip. The deportation had earlier been approved by an Israeli military court. Israeli media reported that the Court gave the IDF 15 days to respond to the injunction. The three Palestinians in question all had brothers who were suspected by Israel for involvement in a July attack against an Israeli settlers bus in which nine people were killed. The Israeli Centre for the Defence of the Individual, which provided the trio’s legal counsel, and which made the appeal to the Supreme Court, said the deportations to the Gaza Strip would constitute “collective punishment contrary to international law and natural rights.” Chairman Arafat condemned the planned deportations of the families, telling reporters it was a “crime, which [he] [could] not remain silent over”. (AFP, DPA, Ha’aretz, The Jerusalem Post, Reuters)

The Israeli Justice Ministry announced it would file indictments against the West Bank Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti in the Tel Aviv District Court. Among the charges to be filed in Court would be murder, incitement to murder and attempted murder as well as charges that Mr. Barghouti was “a central participant in decision-making, which in the past two years perpetrated dozens of attacks in which dozens of Israeli citizens lost their lives and many hundreds were wounded,” the Justice Ministry said in a statement. The statement also added charges of his involvement in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades,. (AFP, DPA, The Jerusalem Post, Reuters)

Despite media reports that 13 Palestinian groups were working on an agreement to limit resistance against the Israeli occupation within the 1967 borders of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad announced that they would not sign on to an agreement of ending attacks in Israel. Gaza Hamas leader Ismail Abu Shanab told AFP “Hamas [would] not accept any document that [did] not give it the right of resistance on all Palestinian lands.” “Islamic Jihad will continue its resistance to the occupation, even if we reach an agreement on the document” under discussion, which focuses on forging a united Palestinian leadership and not on halting such attacks, said Jihad leader Mohammed al-Hindi. “There is no change in our position in regard to the resistance,” he said, adding that the group’s attacks would continue within the “1948 borders” of historic Palestine. (AFP, DPA)

The IDF arrested six relatives of PFLP militants near Nablus, Palestinian witnesses said. Moreover, the IDF had demolished the family homes of a Palestinian gunman near Hebron and that of a suicide bomber near Bethlehem, witnesses and the IDF said. The families did not dispute the two men’s roles in the attacks. (AFP)

Israeli President Moshe Katsav in an interview with Al-Jazeera TV appealed for a comprehensive Middle East peace, saying he invited “Arab leaders to come to Jerusalem, and if they are not willing to, Israeli leaders are ready to travel to any Arab capital or town”, so that they could discuss how “to arrive at a fair and lasting peace with the Arab world”. (AFP)

The IDF demolished two homes of suspected militants in the town of Tubas, south of Jenin, in an operation which left one Palestinian injured, Palestinian security sources said. In a separate incident, the IDF forced a Palestinian family out of their apartment in Hebron and turned it into a military position, an AFP journalist at the scene said. The apartment on the top floor of a four-storey building was inhabited by 11 family members. Two Israeli armoured troop carriers took up positions near the house and closed off the sector to traffic, while soldiers took up positions on the roof. (AFP, DPA)

Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Personal Humanitarian Envoy, Ms. Catherine Bertini met with Chairman Arafat at his Ramallah HQ. Senior Palestinian negotiator and PA Minister Saeb Erakat told AFP that Mr. Arafat had briefed Ms. Bertini on “the situation in the territories and the continuous Israeli aggression in Palestinian villages, cities and camps.” “The world should understand that the human disaster the Palestinians are suffering from now is not the result of an earthquake but of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s policies,” Mr. Erakat said. (AFP)

Israeli Defence Ministry Director-General Amos Yaron told public radio that the Israeli Security Cabinet had approved the final location of the first section of the electric fence being erected between the West Bank and Israel. He said work on the fence, which was aimed at preventing Palestinian suicide bombers from infiltrating Israel, was due to “start in full in a week or two,” and that a first section of 107 kilometres would be completed within eight or nine weeks.” Prime Minister Sharon and Defence Minister Ben Eliezer decided last week to erect the fence along the Green Line. (AFP, Ha’aretz, The Jerusalem Post)

The IDF killed a 44-year old leader of Hamas’ military wing in the village of Tubas, near Jenin, when they shelled the house he was staying in and flattened it with a bulldozer. A second Palestinian was killed in the operation, the victim’s family told AFP . The 19-year-old man was shot dead after the IDF used him as a “human shield” to go into the house where the militant was hiding, the family said, adding that he had had no political affiliation. Troops had surrounded the house and were using loudspeakers to order people out. The IDF confirmed the death, saying he had been shot while trying to enter the house to negotiate with the militant. However, the army strongly denied he had been used as a human shield, although armed soldiers had asked him to enter the house and had handed him a bullet proof vest. The IDF said in a statement that, having lost both legs and one arm while preparing a bomb a year ago, the militant had been planning an attack on a high-rise building in central Israel using several suicide bombers. (AFP, DPA, Ha’aretz, Reuters)

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a press release that it had launched a large relief programme to help the most vulnerable people in the major Palestinian towns and cities of the West Bank. Some 20,000 families or about 120,000 people in nine cities and towns were set to benefit from the programme. “Owing to the current situation of hardship, the ICRC has set up this programme, which will run till the end of the year in order to provide support to families most affected by the consequences of violence, closures and curfews,” the ICRC said. Israel “has the clear obligation to ensure, at all times, adequate supplies of food, medicines and other basic needs for the population under its occupation”, the ICRC said, adding that “legitimate security concerns” of the authorities do not relieve Israel from its duties.” (AFP, DPA)

PA Finance Minister Salam Fayad announced that a holding company had been formed to consolidate all PA funds and assets under a single umbrella, a reform that meets a key US demand. Mr. Fayad said in an interview with Reuters Chairman Arafat had given formal approval to the creation of the new Palestinian Investment Fund, which would be under the Finance Minister’s direct control. Mr. Fayad said the new holding company would ensure transparency and accountability in Palestinian financial dealings and that the holding company’s powers would extend to foreign assets of the PA, disbursement of international aid and management of cement and petroleum monopolies in the Palestinian-controlled areas. (Reuters)

Israeli troops and tanks staged a brief incursion into Palestinian-controlled territory south of Gaza City, Palestinian security officials told AFP. Troops conducted house searches in Wadi Gaza and one man was arrested, the sources said. An IDF spokesperson confirmed the arrest, saying “the man was wanted by the Israeli security services and currently under investigation.” Tanks also entered the Palestinian-controlled area near the town of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, witnesses said. A 5-year-old Palestinian boy was killed and his grandfather and another person seriously injured when Israeli forces opened fire, Palestinian hospital and security officials said. The boy died after being hit in the head by a bullet. His grandfather aged 60 and another man aged 40 were hit in the chest and seriously injured, the officials said. Separately, two Palestinians had been killed by Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip as they tried “to infiltrate the Kissufim crossing” between the central Gaza Strip and Israel, the IDF said in a statement, adding that an explosive charge of several dozen kilograms had been discovered near the bodies of the two men. (AFP, DPA, Ha’aretz)

A resolution adopted by the New York City Council “strongly condemn[ed] the murderous attacks against civilians in Israel and call[ed] upon President George W. Bush to condemn the Palestinian Authority’s support of terrorists and harboring of terrorists”. “As a government entity that shelters terrorist groups, the offices of the Palestinian Authority may pose a danger to New Yorkers”, the resolution added. A State Department spokeswoman said the decision to close down the Palestinian Observer Mission to the United Nations could only be taken at the federal level. Monica Tarazi, New York Director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said her organization was “very disappointed” that the City Council had decided to pass “this one-sided resolution”. (Reuters)

Israeli forces had reportedly withdrawn from a building near Chairman Arafat’s Ramallah headquarters, and three tanks had pulled back, leaving the area free of heavy armour for the first time in almost two months. Israeli troops had also left the seven-story PA Ministry of Culture building and another three tanks stationed outside it had also been pulled back. (AFP)

The IDF had destroyed the family homes of two suspected Palestinian militants in the northern West Bank, Israeli military sources said. One of the houses had been in the village of Ra’i, south of Jenin, and belonged to an Islamic Jihad militant allegedly involved in a bus bombing in June near the northern Israeli town of Megiddo that had killed 17 people. Residents of Ra’i said 12 people had been rendered homeless after troops flattened the two-storey house overnight. The militant himself was said to be in hiding elsewhere. The other house destroyed had been in Anabta, near Tulkarm, and belonged to a Palestinian militant who had injured two Israeli policemen in a suicide attack in the Israeli Arab town of Taibeh seven months ago, the sources added. Separately, the IDF said they had arrested five Palestinians south of Jenin overnight, four of them on the Israeli “most-wanted” list of militants. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

The IDF had decided to continue its controversial practice of using civilians in arrests of wanted Palestinian militants and house-to-house searches, Ma’ariv reported, quoting a senior military official. The practice, known in military circles as “neighbour procedure”, involved soldiers surrounding a house, in which a wanted militant was hiding. They called on him to surrender through loudspeakers and, when he refused, they told a neighbour to knock on the door and persuade him to come out. Ha’aretz quoted a “senior police officer” as saying the practice had been used “hundreds of times to reach wanted men and to comb houses for fear of booby traps”. A 19-year-old Palestinian used this way by the IDF had lost his life in the northern West Bank on 14 August. The youth’s death had sparked a debate in Israel, prompting the IDF to discuss stopping the use of the practice. However, it had ultimately decided to “limit its use to extreme cases, when there is no other option”, an IDF official quoted by Ma’ariv said. The practice has been compared by some to using human shields and continued despite a related IDF promise to the Israeli Supreme Court last May, following a petition by human rights groups. (DPA)

The Israeli Supreme Court had rejected a petition by a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip against an IDF decision to confiscate agricultural land owned by him, Israel Radio reported. The IDF had said it wanted to use the land to build a new, “ safer”, road to the “Netzarim” settlement, south of Gaza City. Nine other Palestinians, whose land was also liable to be confiscated, had added their name to the petition. The Court said the IDF’s decision was based on “security needs”, in which it did not intervene. The IDF was “willing to consider” compensating the Palestinian for the loss of his land, the radio said. (DPA)

Israeli Channel Two television reported that Prime Minister Sharon had earlier in the year approved a military plan to deport Chairman Arafat. The plan entailed an elite IDF unit quickly extracting Mr. Arafat from his Ramallah headquarters and taking him by helicopter to a desolate area of an unspecified Arab country that did not have diplomatic ties with Israeli or close relations with the US. The Arab country would not be informed of Mr. Arafat’s whereabouts until Israeli forces had left its territory. The plan had been approved by Mr. Sharon after a briefing by then IDF Chief of General Staff Shaul Mofaz but had been rejected by the Israeli Cabinet. (DPA)

According to the PA Health Ministry’s annual report, there had been a 125.6 per cent increase in Palestinian children’s malnutrition between 2000 and 2001. The report said the Israeli closures and blockade of the West Bank and Gaza Strip since the beginning of the intifada were the root cause of the crisis, WAFA reported. The report stressed the blockades hindered health efforts in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the ability to provide vaccinations for children. Mental health illness indicators had risen by 42 per cent in 2001, although it was not clear if there was a link to the effects of the intifada . Since September 2000 until the end of 2001, 880 Palestinians had been killed, including 202 children, while another 23,000 people had been wounded, the report said. (AFP)

Israeli soldiers combed the streets of Hebron, rounding up more than 150 Palestinians and throwing stun grenades into a crowded market to enforce a curfew, Palestinian witnesses said. Doctors at Hebron’s Al-Ahli Hospital said at least five Palestinians had been treated for shrapnel injuries and burns caused by the exploding casings of the grenades in the city’s open-air market. An Israeli military source said troops had detained an unspecified number of Palestinians breaking the curfew and released them after identity checks. Clashes had also erupted between Israeli troops and young Palestinians in the Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem, witnesses said, reporting no injuries. A Hamas activist had been arrested by undercover Israeli forces at his grocery store in Nablus. Three more Palestinians had been arrested by Israeli border police in Issawiya village, just north of East Jerusalem, on suspicion of throwing stones at a passing Israeli car and lightly injuring the woman driver, the IDF said. (AFP, Reuters)

The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Coalition held a meeting in northern Jerusalem, near an IDF checkpoint, and called for a “return to the negotiating table without any preconditions”. The group also demanded a halt to the violence, an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian towns occupied in recent months and the restructuring of Palestinian security services. Among the personalities who attended the meeting were former Labour Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, Meretz MKs, and PA Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo. (AFP, Reuters)

The Israeli Supreme Court had issued a temporary ban on the use of Palestinian civilians as “human shields” or as go-betweens in military operations, B’Tselem said. Following a petition by a coalition of Israeli and Palestinian rights groups, the Court had ordered the IDF to desist from such practices for seven days. (AFP)

The UN Secretary-General’s humanitarian envoy Catherine Bertini said in Jerusalem that she was “encouraged” by Israeli steps to ease economic and humanitarian conditions for the Palestinians. After a meeting with Foreign Minister Peres, Ms. Bertini said she understood Israel’s security concerns and it was important for the Government to fulfill its promises, noting that she “had occasionally experienced a discrepancy between government policy and the implementation on the ground”. Minister Peres responded that if there were “any discrepancies with respect to implementation”, Israeli would make sure they were removed and would happily accept comments in this regard. “We are fighting terrorism and not the Palestinian people”, Mr. Peres noted. (AFP)

Defence Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer was trying to reach agreement with the Israeli Settlers’ Council over the removal of 69 illegal settler outposts, Army Radio reported. (DPA)

Thousands of Palestinians arrested by IDF in the West Bank were being held in harsh conditions, as overloaded Israeli interrogators struggled to cope with the massive influx, human rights groups said. According to Issa Qaraqi, head of the Bethlehem-based Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, the prisoners numbered 6,000, with some 1,800 being held in administrative detention, a left-over from emergency laws applied during the British mandate period, which meant the Palestinians could be held for extended periods without being formally charged. An IDF spokesman said some 2,600 Palestinians were being held in the three main detention centres, namely “Ofer”, near Ramallah, Megiddo in northern Israel, and Ketziot in the Negev desert, as well as in other military interrogation centres around the country. “The Ofer camp has many wounded and ill and we have asked without success to be allowed to treat them”, Noam Lebel, spokesman for the Association of Civil Rights in Israel, told AFP . “As for Ketziot, it is very bad. During the day it is extremely hot and at night very cold”, Mr. Lebel added, noting that detainees in this desert camp were confined to tents. Many had not changed their clothes since they were arrested and the military had not allowed their families to bring them fresh clothes or provisions, he added. The IDF reportedly maintained that detainees in “Ketziot” did not receive visitors because of the distance between the camp and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. However, Tamar Peleg, a lawyer from the Centre for the Defence of the Individual, an Israeli rights group, said the prisoners were “cut-off deliberately from the rest of the world, without press, radio or television”, adding that the prisoners’ lawyers were often barred from seeing them, even in cases when they had received special permission to visit. In September, the Israeli Supreme Court was to consider whether to allow parents to visit detainees in this camp, according to Israeli lawyer Andre Rosenthal, who had petitioned the Court about the matter. The Prisoners’ Club said several detainees in “Ofer” had been beaten earlier this month, when hundreds of prisoners had clashed with Israeli guards. (AFP)

Eight Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, all men from the same family, and another eight from Ramallah and Qalqilya, were reportedly arrested by the IDF, on suspicion of militant activity. Separately, three Palestinians, including a 16-year-old girl, were hit by shrapnel when tanks in the “Gush Katif” settlement bloc opened fire on the Khan Yunis refugee camp. The IDF had razed two Palestinian homes being built without permits near a road reserved for Jewish settlers on the outskirts of the Luban al-Sharqiyah village in the northern West Bank, a military spokesman said . (AFP) (AFP, Reuters)

At a meeting in Tel Aviv between Israeli Defence Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and a Palestinian delegation headed by Interior Minister Abdel Razzek Al-Yahya and Chairman Arafat’s security adviser Mohammed Dahlan, an agreement was reached on a revised “Gaza First” plan. According to the plan, Israeli forces would gradually leave positions from Palestinian areas they had reoccupied, starting with the Gaza Strip and Bethlehem, reportedly within the following 48 hours, while Palestinian security forces would take control of those areas and rein in militant groups. The Israeli Defence Ministry said in a statement that, under the agreement, the Palestinians would “take responsibility to calm the security situation and reduce violence and terror” and Israel would “do everything in order to ease conditions on the Palestinian population”. The Defence Ministry said the sides had also agreed to a new round of security talks by lower ranking military officers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the next few days. “The main idea is to achieve a ceasefire and for tensions and all the violence to abate”, Minister Ben-Eliezer told reporters. Israeli officials insisted that the process would be a gradual one, aimed at restoring the confidence shattered by prolonged confrontation, without compromising security issues. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the PFLP said they rejected the deal and would continue their struggle against the occupation. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana “warmly welcome[d]” the Israeli-Palestinian security plan and expressed the hope that “this limited agreement be conducive to a much-needed change of atmosphere between the parties and the respective public opinions”. “It can also provide the first building block for increased co-operation in the near future, across a broader scope of interests than security and humanitarian relief”, Mr. Solana said in a statement. White House Spokesman Ari Fleischer also welcomed the Israeli-Palestinian agreement and expressed hope this was “a sign of more welcome developments to come”. State Department Deputy Spokesman Philip Reeker said reports of progress on security issues were “encouraging” and noted that the agreement reached had been “facilitated” by US diplomats in the region. “ We strongly urge the Israelis and Palestinians to continue their discussions, not only on security, but also on the Palestinian humanitarian situation, which is of great concern to us, and on finances and the Palestinian civil reform efforts”, Mr. Reeker added. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

The Israeli Supreme Court had postponed a debate on the expulsion to the Gaza Strip of three relatives of Palestinian militants, Israeli Army Radio reported. The Supreme Court judges had accepted a request put forward by the lawyers for the three, asking that the hearing take place in front of a larger number of judges. The order blocking the expulsions would remain in force until the case was heard, Ha’aretz reported. (AFP)

A 13-year-old Palestinian boy was shot dead by Israeli fire in Birqin, two kilometres south-west of Jenin, as more than a dozen Israeli tanks and eight jeeps moved into the village and the nearby Jenin refugee camp, sparking heavy exchanges of fire. The boy was shot in the head close to his home, as troops opened fire to force people to return to their living quarters, his family said. They added that it was two hours before the Israelis allowed an ambulance to take their son to hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Also, four missiles were launched at a house and destroyed it. The raid reportedly came just hours after a curfew had been lifted; the IDF announced over loudspeakers that the curfew had been reimposed. A Palestinian man was critically injured and two Israeli soldiers were slightly injured in Nablus’s Old City, where the IDF found and destroyed what they said was an explosives laboratory. An AFP correspondent at the scene said Israeli troops operating in the Old City had destroyed two flats and a row of three small shops underneath them by placing explosives in the building. Israeli troops also moved into Balata refugee camp, in the south of Nablus, and arrested a senior official of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. (AFP, BBC News online at http://www.news.bbc.co.uk )

Israeli public radio reported that curfews imposed by the IDF on Bethlehem and the nearby areas of Beit Sahur, Beit Jala and the Dheisheh refugee camp had been lifted and troops had pulled-out, while Palestinian police were preparing to take over, as part of the security agreement between the parties. Palestinian officials told AFP that about 100 PA police had arrived in a convoy of about a dozen jeeps from Jericho, the only main West Bank town not reoccupied by Israel in recent weeks. They had deployed around the headquarters of Bethlehem’s Governor, where officials from various Palestinian security services, including West Bank security chief Haj Ismail, were meeting to discuss the withdrawal plan, the sources said. (AFP, BBC News online at http://www.news.bbc.co.uk)

The IDF had withdrawn from Bethlehem and redeployed around the town, an IDF statement said. Residents of Bethlehem reported that Palestinian police were patrolling the streets of the city. (AFP, DPA, The Jerusalem Post)

Two Palestinians had been shot dead by the IDF during a firefight in the Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank, and an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian youth had been killed in a clash in the Gaza Strip, Israeli and Palestinian sources said. The Tulkarm clash erupted as a large Israeli force, backed by helicopters, entered the refugee camp early in the morning, making house-to-house searches for alleged militants. Israel Radio quoted military officials as saying the camp housed an extensive “terrorist infrastructure,” which was responsible for many attacks on Israelis. In addition to the two Palestinian fatalities, another Palestinian was wounded in the exchange. In the southern Gaza Strip, heavy gunfire was reported close to the “Neve Dekalim” settlement. An IDF spokesman said an Israeli soldier was fatally wounded in an exchange of fire. The military wing of the Hamas claimed responsibility for the killing in a statement, saying it was in retaliation for the shooting of one of its members last week. A 15-year-old Palestinian boy was also killed in the incident. Palestinian hospital officials said the boy was in a street next to the settlement when he was shot in the head. (AFP, DPA, Ha’aretz, Reuters, The Jerusalem Post)

Three Palestinian teenagers and a British woman peace activist had been injured by gunfire as Israeli troops moved into the town of Jenin and its refugee camp, Palestinian hospital sources said. Two of the Palestinians, aged 14 and 19, were in critical condition after being shot in the chest when four Israeli tanks and six jeeps raided the camp and opened fire on stone-throwers who were defying a curfew imposed by the IDF, they said. The British peace activist and a 13-year-old boy were also injured. In Jenin itself, 10 children were also hospitalized suffering from tear gas inhalation. (AFP)

Israeli special forces entered a house in the centre of Ramallah and shot dead the brother of the leader of the PFLP, Palestinian intelligence officers said. Two IDF soldiers were also injured in the raid. (AFP, Ha’aretz, The Jerusalem Post, Reuters)

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, giving testimony to a Governmental Commission of Enquiry, denied having given an order which led to the deaths of 13 Israeli Arabs in October 2000 during demonstrations of solidarity with the Palestinians, shortly after the outbreak of the Al-Aqsaintifada court sources said. The Commission, headed by Supreme Court Judge Theodore Or, had accused Mr. Barak of not anticipating the reaction of Israel’s one-million strong Arab community at the time, and of taking inappropriate measures when the unrest erupted. Speaking to the Commission, Mr. Barak denied he had ordered police to open a number of roads, blocked by rioters, “by any means,” despite the risk to human life. He also denied knowing the police were using snipers during the riots. “There was no guidance. The Prime Minister does not deal with the question of what means the police use to deal with these situations, whether they use truncheons or gas or whatever,” he said. Mr. Barak also rejected the Commission’s accusations that he had not anticipated the protests, saying he had expected disturbances but not on the violent scale of those seen in October 2000, placing the blame for the outbreak of violence on “Arab separatist groups with a nationalist political agenda,” he said. Mr. Barak’s testimony was the last in the OR Commission’s public hearings. (AFP, Ha’aretz, The Jerusalem Post)

Israeli tanks and helicopters made incursions into the Khan Yunis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip. The operation followed the killing of an Israeli soldier guarding the “Neve Dekalim” settlement on 20 August by a Hamas militant. A Palestinian man was killed and four were injured when the IDF dynamited a four-storey building. Palestinian residents and security sources said Israeli soldiers in up to 20 tanks entered one area of the camp while helicopters circled overhead and tanks fired machine-guns. An IDF statement said its soldiers had destroyed two empty buildings which had “ served terrorists as shooting posts and shelter.” (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

Following the killing by Israeli special forces of the brother of the leader of the PFLP on 20 August, French Foreign Ministry Spokesman François Rivasseau said France continued to oppose Israel’s policy of assassinating wanted Palestinian militants. (AFP)

Israeli security forces reportedly had arrested members of Hamas from East Jerusalem believed to have carried out the bombing at Hebrew University on 31 July as well as other attacks. Israeli radio and television stations said five members of the group had been caught on 17 August on their way to mount a new attack in central Israel, citing a briefing from Israeli security officials as the source of the information. Four of those arrested were Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem with Israeli identity papers. (AFP, Ha’aretz, The Jerusalem Post, Reuters)

Israel’s Security Cabinet met for its first formal discussion of the “Gaza First” plan. The Cabinet also discussed the final routing of the separation barrier known as “the Jerusalem envelope.” Prime Minister Sharon’s spokesman Arnon Feldman announced beforehand that in any event, Rachel’s Tomb, which was only about 500 meters south of the Jerusalem municipal border, would “remain in Israeli hands.” The critical issue was whether the new fence would run south or north of Rachel’s Tomb; at least one MK said that Mr. Sharon had assured him the day before that the fence would be built to the south. (Arutz, DPA, Ha’aretz)

Israeli troops imposed a curfew on the village of Muwasi, in the southern Gaza Strip, and bulldozed the home of Yusuf Zarub, a Palestinian detained since 12 May for the killing of a settler in the nearby “Gush Katif” settlement block. Mr. Zarub’s family had appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court to spare their home, but the Court ruled that the deterrent effect it might have on other would-be gunmen made it permissible. (AFP)

Following the arrest by Israeli police of an alleged 15-person Hamas cell, that included four East Jerusalem residents, Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert said “The presence of a handful of terrorists among the 210,000 Palestinians who are Jerusalem residents does not justify collective punishment”. His comments came as Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai said he would hasten to withdraw the residency permits of the four East Jerusalem Palestinians. “ We must not wait until they are sentenced to confiscate their Israeli identity papers, which allowed them to move about and organize these terrible terrorist attacks”, the Minister told Israeli public radio. Mr. Yishai had reportedly recently started proceedings against several Arab Israelis accused of involvement in “terrorist activities”, but Israeli courts had yet to rule on whether they could go ahead. (AFP)

The Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razzek Al-Yahya held talks in Gaza with 13 Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad in an effort to secure agreement to end attacks against Israel and accept the “ Gaza-Bethlehem First” plan. A spokesman for Hamas said they were not convinced that Israel was doing its part in ending killings of militants and incursions into Palestinian areas. He told Reuters that Mr. Yahya had asked for a suspension of some attacks in order to allow for the understanding to succeed. “ The continuation by Israel to launch incursions and carry out assassinations against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank cast a shadow over the meeting and the Minister failed to convince us of the plan, mainly because of Israeli practices,” he said. Senior Hamas member Abdel-Aziz Rantissi, who did not attend the talks, also reiterated Hamas’ earlier rejection of the plan. (AFP, Reuters)

Defence Minister Ben Eliezer said that he had “found [his] Palestinian interlocutors [on security issues] to be sincere and serious, but the question [was] whether they have the capability to stop terrorism,” he said. “ If we have attacks every day, it is clear that nothing will work, but we should not demand too much from [the Palestinians] in the immediate future, so as to leave some room for hope.” (AFP, Reuters, The Jerusalem Post)

Israel’s National Security Council issued a report entitled “ Evaluation of the 2002 security situation.” The Council said Israel should choose between three options in the years ahead. The first scenario envisaged the creation of a Palestinian State by mutual consent, the second an Israeli annexation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and the third mentioned a unilateral separation by Israel, without a previous agreement with the Palestinians. The report favoured the last option, a “separation” between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory without specifying any borders. The Council, made up of high-ranking military officers and economists and charged with carrying out strategic evaluations, said Israel should “ unilaterally fix” its borders with the Palestinian entity since no deal with the PA was within reach. In doing so, however, Israel should consider “security and demography,” the report said. The report recommended strengthening the security fence currently under construction in the northern West Bank to create a buffer zone to prevent infiltration by Palestinian militants. At the same time the IDF should “continue the fight against terrorism in all the territories,” including the Palestinian-controlled areas, without relying on the Palestinian police. The report also linked Israel’s economic situation to the Palestinian intifada and said that the restoration of calm was essential for Israel to exit the current crisis. (AFP, The Jerusalem Post)

Following the Security Council’s review of the situation in the Middle East, US Permanent Representative to the UN John Negroponte, speaking in his capacity as President of the Security Council, said that the Council Members, among other things, had commended the parties for their recent agreement on Bethlehem and Gaza and had encouraged the parties to continue to build on this positive development. The Council Members had also supported the efforts of the International Task Force on Palestinian reform, which was meeting in Paris, and had as well expressed concern about the humanitarian situation in Palestinian areas and support for the work of Ms. Catherine Bertini in her capacity as the Secretary-General’s Personal Humanitarian Envoy. (UN Newservice)

The Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy Humanitarian Envoy, Catherine Bertini, reporting on an eight-day visit to the Middle East, at UN HQ in New York said she had met with both Israeli and Palestinian leaders at the highest levels. Her delegation had been given full cooperation and access to all sites it had requested to visit, including the Rafah refugee camp and the towns of Ramallah, Nablus and Bethlehem. While her more fully detailed report would be presented to the Secretary-General later in the month, she mentioned a number of critical points. The Israeli Government had turned a corner and had taken steps to address certain issues of “access” to avert a humanitarian disaster in the West Bank and Gaza she said. Amongst several facts, she mentioned that the rate of unemployment was 65 per cent in the West Bank and 70 per cent in Gaza. Poverty and malnutrition were rampant. Infrastructure was disrupted. Palestinians’ health was deteriorating as a result of breakdowns in providing services such as deliveries of vaccinations. Finally, the harvest and fishery industries were disrupted, and there was a greater than usual shortage of water. To alleviate some of the problems, Ms. Bertini said that Israel had agreed to limit check-point stops for ambulances to no more than 30 minutes. Special systems would be put in place to ease the security burden on pregnant women and the seriously ill. Seasoned soldiers and veterans would be placed at borders. Access to water would be facilitated. The previously agreed 12-mile limit on fishing rights would be respected. Access would be granted to farmers for harvest of crops, particularly during the October olive harvest. Finally, the Government had expressed new support for the work of UNRWA. (The full text of the briefing can be found at: http://www.un.org/News/briefings/docs/2002/BERTINI)

According to an IDF statement, Israeli General Moshe Kaplinsky, commander of forces in the West Bank, told Palestinian counterpart General Haj Ismail during a security meeting that there would be no more IDF withdrawals from reoccupied Palestinian areas until the Palestinian security forces took action against Palestinian militants. “A change on the ground depends on the long-term security situation and on Palestinian actions against terrorism,” the statement said. Israeli army radio said that security services had information about attacks that were under preparation by Islamic Jihad, whose armed wing had not yet been dismantled in Hebron, where Israel was to have staged the next phase of its withdrawal. Chairman Arafat’s Advisor Nabil Abu Rudeineh told AFP that the meeting had brought “no progress”. “The Israeli side refused to respect the engagements it had undertaken under the plans dubbed ‘Gaza-Bethlehem First’ and that should have resulted in a withdrawal from Hebron,” he said. (AFP, Reuters)

Senior Palestinian negotiator and PA Minister Saeb Erakat speaking to Israel Radio said that while Israel had implemented an agreement to withdraw from some areas, it had mounted an incursion and killed Palestinians elsewhere proving, he said, that Israel did not want peace. Mr. Erekat said that security meetings had been postponed until 26 August, adding, however, that such meetings would be irrelevant if Israel continued with its current policies. (AFP)

Around 366,000 Palestinians, 44.7 per cent of the work force, were unemployed in the second quarter of 2002 according to data released by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, compared to 170,000 unemployed in the third quarter of 2000, before the outbreak of the Al-Aqsaintifada, and 15,000 at the start of 2002. Of the Palestinians who had worked during the second quarter, 59.2 per cent earned a salary that put them below the poverty line, compared to 43.2 per cent in the third quarter of 2000 and 54.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2002. The dependency ratio, the number of people dependent on each wage earner, also grew, from 4.8 in 2000 to 7.6 in the second quarter of 2002, a rise of 58.3 per cent. Due to curfews and closures, there was also a sharp rise in the incidence of absenteeism from work. (AFP)

The International Task Force on Palestinian Reform, bringing together officials from the Quartet with those of the IMF, the World Bank and donor countries such as Japan and Norway, concluded a two-day meeting in Paris with a statement saying it had “discussed serious concerns about the deteriorating Palestinian humanitarian situation” and repeated the Quartet’s call “for full, safe, and unfettered access for international and humanitarian personnel”. The statement noted that the Task Force had reviewed status reports on reform efforts and had “discussed the need for continued Palestinian commitment to the reform process, Israeli facilitation and support from the international community.” It said it would deliver a report on the meeting to the Quartet ahead of a scheduled ministerial meeting on the margins of the General Assembly in September. Palestinian Labour Minister Ghassan Al-Khatib said Task Force members had expressed satisfaction with reform efforts, but he warned further progress could be halted by Israeli restrictions on freedom of movement. (DPA, Reuters)

Two armed Palestinians reportedly dressed in IDF uniforms were killed in an attack on an IDF post near the “Kfar Darom” settlement in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians had opened fire on the post, lightly wounding an Israeli soldier, military sources said. The IDF returned fire, killing one of the Palestinians and shooting the second assailant after a brief pursuit. The source said the second Palestinian had “refused to surrender.” The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade claimed responsibility for the attack. In a separate incident, the IDF said it had demolished the house of a Palestinian militant leader in Tulkarm, who allegedly sent a bomber into the Park Hotel in Netanya, killing 29 people during Passover on 27 March. (AFP, Reuters, The Jerusalem Post)

A ministerial conference of the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD), bringing together senior ministers from 18 African States, was concluded in Tripoli, Libya. Whereas the conference generally focused on finding solutions to conflicts in Africa as well as on creating mechanisms for greater economic cooperation, it expressed support for Chairman Arafat and criticized the “ aggressive policies” of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. (AFP)

PA Economy Minister Maher Al-Masri was quoted by Al-Hayat as saying that Israel had transferred to the PA only US$28 million in tax funds it had withheld since the outbreak of the intifada, thus still owing some $700 million. Mr. Masri urged the international community to pressure Israel to unblock the remaining funds, stressing the dire economic situation that the Palestinians confronted. (AFP)

At least six Palestinians were wounded, two of them seriously, by Israeli soldiers during a heavy exchange of fire in the Old City of Nablus, Palestinian hospital sources and witnesses said. Palestinian witnesses claimed all the wounded were civilians from the area who had not been involved in the fighting. In Jenin, Israeli troops had shot dead the local leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades during a gunfight. In the Gaza Strip, Israeli bulldozers, accompanied by tanks, had stormed into the Deir El-Balah area, near the “Kfar Darom” settlement, and had torn down three houses and another brick building, which the IDF claimed were being used by Palestinian militants to fire on the settlement. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

Chairman Arafat’s advisor Nabil Abu Rudeineh told Reuters that Israel had “frozen” implementation of the “Gaza-Bethlehem First” agreement and had no intention of withdrawing from Palestinian areas. Israeli Defence Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer told Channel 1 television that the effort to halt violence in the Gaza Strip and Bethlehem had to be “deepen[ed]” and it was “pointless” to move forward and widen the process, unless there was quiet and the warnings of more suicide attacks had stopped. Mr. Ben-Eliezer said there were still many such warnings coming from Hebron. “We want to go about this process step by step, step after step, and not to jump beyond their capabilities”, he said, alluding to the PA security services. (Reuters)

In an incursion into the town of Salfit, south of Nablus, the IDF arrested six suspected Palestinian militants. In Hebron, Israeli troops had arrested Abdel Halim Dan, a PFLP political leader, Palestinian witnesses said. Three suspected militants had also been arrested in the village of Mirka, south of Jenin. Three Palestinians had been wounded, two of them children, during an Israeli raid in Jenin, which had followed the launching of two bombs at a military patrol in the town, according to the IDF. (AFP, Reuters)

The IDF said it had ordered restrictions on the sale of chemical products in the West Bank that could be used for explosive devices. Controls had been placed on products like acid, sulphur and nitrate “as part of the war against the terrorist infrastructure”, an IDF statement said. To use these products for commercial or private purposes Palestinians had to obtain authorization from the military authorities, otherwise the materials would be confiscated. (AFP)

Israel Radio broadcast an investigative report, which found that the looting of Palestinian property by Israeli troops had been widespread. Lieutenant Colonel Ilan Katz, the Deputy Chief Military Prosecutor, told the radio later that seven soldiers had been convicted for looting offences and five others had been indicted and were awaiting trial. Mr. Katz said military regulations required officers to report all incidents of looting to the military police and that a lieutenant had been charged for failure to report looting by soldiers under his command. He added that in his view the phenomenon was marginal, relative to the large numbers of soldiers who took part in the military operations in the West Bank over the past few months. The IDF Spokesman’s office said military police were investigating 35 reports of looting by Israeli troops. Meretz MK Avshalom Vilan told Reuters he would call for a special session of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee of the Knesset. “Each day there are complaints on looting carried out by Israeli soldiers. We bring up these issues in our meetings with the Israelis”, reportedly said Ribhi Arafat, Palestinian chief of military liaison with Israel in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. (AFP, Reuters)

Israeli troops blew up the home of an Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades member in Tulkarm. The destruction of the two-storey house had also damaged several neighbouring buildings, Palestinian witnesses said. (AFP)

Dozens of armoured vehicles backed by Apache attack helicopters swept through Jenin in search of militants, while the town was placed under curfew. Troops had captured local Hamas leader Jamal Abu Al-Hayja, accused of planning several suicide bombings, and another senior Hamas official, as clashes rocked Jenin’s densely-populated refugee camp, Palestinian security sources said. According to these sources, after his arrest, the troops had forced Mr. Abu Al-Hayja to remove his artificial hand and then destroyed it. The Hamas leader had lost his hand during the fierce fighting in Jenin last April. (AFP, DPA)

PA Minister and senior negotiator Saeb Erakat called for “international observers to over[see] the Israeli withdrawal from reoccupied Palestinian areas and guarantee the Palestinian Authority [would] assume its responsibilities in all fields”. He was speaking after a meeting with EU Middle East envoy Miguel Angel Moratinos, who had briefed him on the latest meeting of the International Task Force on Palestinian Reform and the Quartet in Paris. Mr. Erakat also told AFP that Mr. Moratinos had met with Chairman Arafat the previous night, inter alia discussing last week’s Paris meeting. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

Israeli tanks and bulldozers had staged several incursions in the Gaza Strip during the day, Palestinian security sources said. In the Beit Hanoun area, in the north-eastern Gaza Strip, they had destroyed land, as well as a water mill. In the central Gaza Strip, near Deir El-Balah, they had razed land to lay the grounds for what the Palestinians said was a new settlement between the “Gush Katif” block and the “Kissufim” crossing point into Israel. Tanks had also staged an incursion into a Bedouin village near the northern town of Beit Lahia, close to the Israeli border. No fighting had been reported in any of the incidents. (AFP)

Palestinian losses in agriculture in nearly two years of confrontations with Israel had reached US$1 billion, PA Agriculture Minister Rafiq Al-Natsheh was quoted by Al-Ayam as saying. The losses were due to tough Israeli measures, including closures and military incursions into Palestinian towns and villages, which had “ stopped the implementation of many funded projects in the field of agriculture”. Israeli policies “would lead to an agricultural and economic catastrophe in the Palestinian territories”, the Minister warned, and noted that Israeli claims of easing the tough security measures were not true. Israeli closures and curfews had raised the rate of unemployment to more than 50 per cent and brought the number of people living below the poverty line to 70 per cent, he said. The PA Ministry of Agriculture had announced the previous day that the IDF had bulldozed about 7,000 dunams (around 6.3 square kilometres) of Palestinian agricultural land in the Gaza Strip during the nearly two years of the intifada . The Israeli army had also cut down 113,664 olive, citrus, guava and grape trees and had destroyed 100 greenhouses in the Gaza Strip during the same period, according to the Ministry. (DPA)

A poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research showed that some 50 per cent of Palestinians opposed a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian areas reoccupied since September 2000 in exchange for the Palestinian security services foiling anti-Israeli attacks, while 48 per cent supported it. 43 per cent favored the ongoing Palestinian internal dialogue aimed at stopping bombing attacks inside Israel, while 53 per cent opposed such efforts. The percentage of Palestinians supporting such attacks had remained unchanged since May, at about 52 per cent. 70 per cent of those questioned, compared to 67 per cent in May and 61 per cent in December 2001, said they believed armed confrontation had helped advance Palestinian national rights in a way that negotiations could not. However, 73 per cent also said they supported reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians, provided a peace agreement based on the establishment of a Palestinian State was reached. The poll had been conducted between 18 and 20 August with a representative sample of 1320 adults, interviewed face-to-face in 20 locations. It had a margin of error of (plus or minus) 3 per cent. (AFP, DPA)

US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher commenting on the “ Gaza-Bethlehem First” plan, said that the US was “urging both sides to remain committed to their agreement and to continue security contacts, including contacts by local commanders. Regular detailed discussions would be critical to ensuring the long-term success of this initiative and improvement in the Palestinian humanitarian situation, he said.” (Reuters)

The IDF announced that they some time ago had arrested seven Arabs with Israeli citizenship, accused of assisting a Hamas suicide bomber blow up a bus on 4 August. According to IDF officials, the seven men were all from one clan in the northern village of Bana. (Ha’aretz, The Jerusalem Post, Reuters)

At a security meeting between IDF and Palestinian commanders held at the Erez checkpoint it was agreed that the IDF would lift restrictions on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The measures the two sides promised to take in the meeting included “more movement on the roads, the manning of more Palestinian police posts, the entry of more Palestinian workers into Israel, the opening of [main traffic] arteries and the easing of roadblocks.” When the measures would be implemented depended on a continuation of the reduction of violence on the ground, including mortar fire on Israeli settlements and army outposts, an IDF spokesman said. Meanwhile, according to Israeli Central Command evaluations, violence in the Bethlehem area had been reduced, and a series of bans were to be lifted in the city: the IDF would allow more workers, educational and religious representatives, commodities and merchants with permits to enter Israel, starting on 28 August. (AFP, DPA, Ha’aretz, Reuters)

Palestinian Labour Minister Ghassan Khatib, who attended the meeting of the International Task Force on Reform in Paris last week, said European officials had favoured delaying Palestinian elections until reforms in the Palestinian security services had been completed. The European delegates were not satisfied with reforms undertaken so far and wanted more than personnel changes, Mr. Khatib said. The Palestinian envoys attending the meeting briefed the Palestinian Cabinet on the US and European demands. “We made it clear to the Europeans and the Americans that the election of our coming president and of a prime minister, should there be one, is an internal Palestinian issue,” Mr. Khatib said. Chairman Arafat’s adviser Nabil Abu Rudeineh speaking later to Reuters said Palestinian political reforms could include the appointment of a prime minister, but only after the end of the occupation. “After having elections and declaring an independent State, the new parliament will be discussing a number of decisions including the post of prime minister and his responsibilities,” he said, adding that “these are part of the reforms that the PA pledged to carry out. But the main obstacle for implementing these reforms is the occupation.” (Ha’aretz, The Jerusalem Post, Reuters)

Israel’s reoccupation of Palestinian-controlled areas in the West Bank has frozen all planned reforms within the PA, the Palestinian leadership said in a statement. Elections, to be held in late 2002 or January 2003, would nonetheless take place despite the situation, the statement said. (AFP, AP, DPA, The Jerusalem Post)

The IDF arrested at least 18 Palestinians in the West Bank, ten of whom appeared on Israel’s list of wanted militants, Israel Radio reported. In Ramallah, troops arrested six Palestinians, including several political leaders, Palestinian sources reported. Among those arrested were three members of the PFLP, including a spokesman. (AFP, DPA, Ha’aretz, The Jerusalem Post)

Israel’s Supreme Court prolonged a temporary ban on the IDF’s use of Palestinian civilians in operations to arrest wanted militants, Court officials said. The Court extended the interim injunction by two weeks, preventing the IDF from using Palestinians as “human shields” or as the IDF called it, the “neighbour procedure”, in which civilians were forced to go up to militants’ hold outs and negotiate their surrender on behalf of the IDF. The Court was still waiting for the state to respond to charges lodged by seven human rights groups that such use of civilians violates the Fourth Geneva Convention, Court officials said. (AFP)

Israel rejected a Palestinian request for the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) to convene in Ramallah on 9 September, officially to inaugurate the new cabinet. “No Palestinian Cabinet headed or directed by Arafat will be recognized or accepted by the State of Israel,” said a statement from Prime Minister Sharon’s office. “Moreover, the State of Israel will not recognize any new Palestinian Cabinet that is established without having been preceded by basic and genuine reforms in all areas,” it said. The statement demanded reforms in the field of “security, the war on terror, financial affairs and the struggle against corruption”. The Palestinian Cabinet said that Mr. Arafat only wanted to convene the PLC in order to extend its tenure by three months, by now a routine procedure. (AFP, Reuters)

Israeli troops supported by tanks and armoured vehicles entered southern Gaza City, Palestinian security sources reported. Israeli military sources said the air, land and sea raid near Gaza City was prompted by suspicions of an arms smuggling operation using barrels floating offshore. The tanks were supported by a helicopter gunship and a naval gunship offshore. Eyewitnesses said that they saw the IDF leaving from the settlement of “Netzarim” and running deep into an area along the beach under Palestinian control. The security sources said it was the first time that a significant Israeli army presence had entered the neighbourhood since Israel pulled out of Gaza city after the 1993 Oslo agreement. The incursion apparently followed the firing by Palestinian militants of a mortar shell or anti-tank missile at a house occupied by Israeli soldiers watching the southern Gaza City’s coast, the sources said. (AFP, DPA, Ha’aretz, Reuters)

The Danish Presidency of the EU announced that it was working on a new three-stage Middle East peace plan, which envisaged the creation of an independent Palestinian State by 2005. Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller said the plan, based on President Bush’s policy for the region, would be presented to EU Foreign Ministers at an informal meeting in Elsinore, Denmark over the weekend. “We are going to discuss how the EU and the Middle East Quartet, among others, can actively contribute to efforts to realize Bush’s vision of a Palestinian State in three years,” he said in a statement. The plan envisaged a three-phase process. The first phase called for a security agreement to be concluded between Israel and the Palestinians ahead of Palestinian elections in January to end violence. The second phase called for Palestinian reforms including the drafting of a constitution and setting up an independent judiciairy. Finally, negotiations should take place to define Israel’s borders, set up a new Palestinian State and resolve the status of Jerusalem. Mr. Møller said the Quartet should agree as soon as possible on a road map stating phases, time frames and obligations for the two sides. “The EU must seek to exhaust all the possibilities to press for a rapid resumption of political negotiations,” Mr. Møller added, noting that Palestinian reforms would not happen unless the Palestinians were convinced that statehood was an attainable objective for them. (AFP, Reuters)

The IDF had shot dead a Palestinian during clashes with a crowd opening fire and throwing stones at an army outpost at the settlement, Israel Army Radio reported. The fatality appeared to have been one of the stone-throwers and not one of the gunmen, the Radio said. Separately, Palestinian security sources said the IDF had informed them that their troops had killed a Palestinian man west of Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. Israeli military sources said the IDF had fired warning shots at the man, who tried to climb onto an army post. In the West Bank, a 32-year-old Palestinian man was killed when a tank shell hit his home in the Jenin refugee camp, Palestinian witnesses said. (AFP, DPA, Ha’aretz, The Jerusalem Post, Reuters)

United States Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield met with Senior Palestinian negotiator and PA Minister Saeb Erakat in Jericho. The aim of the visit was to search for a solution to the crisis in the Middle East, Mr. Erekat said in a statement. Later, Mr. Erakat told AFP that he had “asked the US administration to stop treating Israel as a State above the law and to stop using calling Israel aggression and reoccupation of Palestinian cities as ‘self-defence,’” adding that he had told Mr. Satterfield that the “fast track to peace and security [was] an end to the occupation.” During his four-day visit to the region, Mr. Satterfield was also scheduled to meet with Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razzek Al-Yahya, as well as Israel’s Foreign Minister Peres and Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer. (AFP, DPA, The Jerusalem Post)

Palestinian security forces returned to three security posts in the Gaza Strip, which the IDF had forced them to abandon, Palestinian security sources said. In the first phase of the implementation of the “Gaza-Bethlehem First” plan, Palestinian police were back at two checkpoints in the area of Khan Yunis, in the south, and one near Beit Lahia, just north of Gaza City, witnesses said. (AFP, Reuters)

“80 per cent of Palestinians would support a large-scale non-violent protest movement [against occupation] and 56 per cent would participate in its activities,” according to a poll conducted by the Search for Common Ground (SFCG) organisation said. “78 percent of Israeli Jews believe that the Palestinians have a legitimate right to seek a Palestinian State, provided they use non-violent means,” said the survey entitled “Surprising potential for non-violent intifada ”. SFCG, which claims to be the world’s largest non-governmental conflict prevention and resolution organization, said a vast majority of Palestinians “express willingness to participate in various specific non-violent actions, including boycotts and forms of mass civil disobedience.” However, the survey also said that “both Palestinians and Israeli were unsure about the feasibility of a large-scale non-violent movement.” It acknowledged that in the meantime, amid such uncertainty, most Palestinians backed retribution against Israel and did not believe that violence was damaging their cause internationally. “While non-violence could provide a possible way out, unfortunately, it is not yet seen by most people in both societies as feasible,” said SFCG President John Marks. (AFP)

In a statement, B’Tselem said the IDF had violated an Israeli Supreme Court injunction on the use of Palestinian civilians as “human shields”. According to the human rights group, Israeli troops searching for a wounded militant on 23 August had forced two Palestinian civilians to locate him in a nearby yard and tell him to surrender. The civilians had failed to persuade the gunman to come out, and he later died, either of his injuries or through the explosion of the grenade he was holding. When the incident was over, one of the two Palestinian civilians collapsed and required medical treatment, the statement said. Ofir Feuerstein, a spokesman for B’Tselem, said the organization was preparing to submit its findings to the Supreme Court. A military spokesman said the IDF was looking into the incident. (AFP)

Israeli troops blew up a house belonging to the family of Mohammed El-Fayed, a Hamas militant who had been killed during street battles in the Jenin refugee camp last April. The IDF alleged the house was being used as a workshop to make bombs. The house was razed after seven family members were forced out. No one was injured in the demolition. An Israeli military spokesman said that dozens of bottles of the explosive material acetone, bags containing detonation equipment and a homemade pipe-bomb had been found in the house before it was destroyed; he accused Hamas of putting civilian lives in danger by locating a bomb making factory in a populated neighbourhood. (AFP)

Israeli tank fire killed four members of a Palestinian family overnight, in the coastal village of Sheikh Ijleen, south of Gaza City. Palestinian witnesses said Israeli tanks had entered several hundred metres into the village south of Gaza City and had fired shells towards the Al-Hajeen family home, killing a mother, two of her sons and their cousin, and wounding five other family members. They were at the time picking grapes from their garden to sell them the next morning. The blasts of several rounds, which Palestinian doctors said sprayed thousands of small, dart-like “flechettes”, left their bodies sliced and torn and spattered the area with blood. Two of the victims had reportedly bled to death, as Palestinian ambulances were prevented from reaching the area for 40 minutes. An IDF spokesman said troops guarding the nearby “Netzarim” settlement had opened fire when they saw “ several suspicious figures” crawling in the direction of the settlement. Chairman Arafat said in a statement the attack was “a deliberate crime that aims to sabotage the peace efforts made by our friends, the Quartet and … the Arab peace initiative”. Spokesmen for Hamas and Islamic Jihad vowed retaliation. An Israeli Defence Ministry statement said Minister Ben-Eliezer had expressed regret for the killing of “Palestinian innocents” and had ordered the IDF to “present him forthwith with its findings on the incident and conclusions for the future”. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

An IDF spokesman said 13 suspected Palestinian militants had been arrested overnight in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Two had been arrested in the Gaza Strip near the “Gush Katif” settlement bloc, shortly after a large explosive charge had been discovered in the area, the spokesman said. Seven Palestinians had been arrested in Dahariyeh, south of Hebron, one in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus, one in Tulkarm and two more in Hitzma, north of Jerusalem. (AFP)

A Palestinian child had been killed and nine other people had been wounded during an Israeli incursion into the town of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical sources said. A bulldozer and four tanks had moved some 200 metres into Palestinian area, destroying four shops and one house, witnesses said. Two of the injured were in critical condition, including a 12-year-old boy who had been shot in the head as the tanks opened fire, the sources said. (AFP)

Israeli troops shot at Bassam Masaoud, 25, a Palestinian freelance cameraman working for Reuters in the Rafah camp in the southern Gaza Strip, while he was filming clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians. He was unharmed, but a camera he had set up next to him on a tripod was destroyed. (Reuters)

Al-Jazeera lodged an appeal with the Israeli Supreme Court, protesting a government decision to cancel the press cards of 7 of its 19 journalists deployed in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The TV station lawyer said they were asking for the same rights as any other foreign media organization, without discrimination because they were Arab. The press cards of the correspondents had been withdrawn “without any other explanation than accusations of pro-Palestinian bias”, he told AFP before entering the courtroom. (AFP)

Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Terje Rød-Larsen warned that the Palestinian population was facing an imminent “human catastrophe”. He was briefing reporters on preliminary figures, ahead of a full report due to be released in September. The figures showed that overall unemployment in the West Bank and Gaza Strip had increased from 36 per cent to approximately 50 per cent during the second quarter of 2002, even rising to 63.3 per cent in the West Bank, on days when tight curfews confined between 600,000 and 900,000 Palestinians to their homes. Poverty levels had reached 70 per cent in the Gaza Strip. The figures Mr. Rød-Larsen presented to the press also revealed that total Palestinian income losses stood at US$7.6 million per day, bringing the tally to US$3.3 billion since the beginning of the intifada in late September 2000. Aid could not fill the gap, he noted, “but without it the economy would collapse”. Mr. Rød-Larsen said that, “in light of the hardships facing Palestinian civilians”, within the next few days he would meet with senior Israeli officials and “urge them to re-examine the application of their security measures”. He unequivocally condemned the terror attacks by Palestinian groups that prompted Israel’s action and reaffirmed the country’s legitimate right to self-defence. At the same time, in the face of the growing human catastrophe, he asked that Israel review the restrictions it imposed. (AFP, UN News Centre at www.un.org/News)

The IDF destroyed nearly a third of the local HQ of the PA in Nablus, Palestinian security officials said. The soldiers raided the empty building and searched inside for several hours before razing part of it with explosives, they said. (AFP)

Middle East Envoy Andrei Vdovin of Russia described the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as “very critical.” Following a meeting with Chairman Arafat, he stressed to reporters in Ramallah that intensive international efforts were needed to overcome the ongoing wave of violence between the two sides, adding that Russia was in favour of peaceful solutions to all issues and supported the search for progress on all levels, especially with regard to security matters. Mr. Vdovin called the “ Gaza-Bethlehem First” plan very positive and important, but emphasized the need for hard work to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in the region. He also said it was very important that both Israel and the Palestinians reached a fair and permanent solution that guaranteed the establishment of an independent Palestinian State to live side by side with Israel. (DPA)

The Palestinian leadership called off high-level security talks with Israel after Israel’s incursion near Gaza City, which left four members of a Palestinian family dead and five injured. (AFP)

Israel’s Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer reiterated his commitment to the “Gaza-Bethlehem First” plan, in a statement issued by his office after Mr. Ben-Eliezer had met in Tel Aviv with visiting US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield and discussed with him “the reforms needed to provoke a change in the terrorist pursued by the Palestinian Authority and supervise the funds paid to it,” his office said. (AFP)

In an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth, Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razzek Al-Yahya called on Palestinian militants to “return to the legitimate struggle against the occupation, without violence.” “Suicide attacks are contrary to the Palestinian tradition, are against international law and harm the Palestinian people,” he was quoted as saying. “It is not necessary to respond or take revenge for every act. Both sides must act with restraint,” he said. Mr. Al-Yahya acknowledged the failure to secure agreement for an end to attacks in meetings with Palestinian militant groups earlier this month in Gaza, though he said in each faction he had “found people willing to hear these ideas,” adding that “if the suicide attacks continue[d], these factions [would] find themselves isolated in Palestinian society.” (AFP, AP, DPA, Reuters)

A Market Watch poll, published in Ma’ariv, found that 54 per cent of Israeli respondents supported the establishment of an independent Palestinian State in the Palestinian Occupied Territory, with 38 per cent opposed and 8 per cent not sure. In addition, 58 per cent said Israel should dismantle its settlements in the Gaza Strip as a concession during peace talks, while 33 per cent said the settlements should remain and 9 per cent had no opinion. Some 47 per cent also supported the uprooting of settlements in the West Bank, but 41 per cent said they opposed it and 12 per cent said they did not know. The poll found Israelis evenly split, at 46 per cent, on the question of whether Israel should withdraw completely from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. However a large majority, 78 per cent, opposed granting Palestinian refugees the right of return. Another majority, 56 per cent, opposed transferring parts of East Jerusalem to Palestinian sovereignty, with 35 per cent saying they were in favour of such a move. (DPA)

According to an article in Ha’aretz, visiting US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield met with various senior Israeli officials, including Foreign Minister Peres, to whom he presented the US State Department’s plan for gradual progress on the Israeli-Palestinian political track. Mr. Satterfield stressed that security was the key issue, and without progress on security, no progress on other fronts would be possible. The first stage of the American plan was security and civil reforms in the PA, which would be judged according to results, and humanitarian measures by Israel to ease the distress of Palestinian residents of the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The second stage included discussions on the format for elections in the PA and whether they should be for the Palestinian Council, the Presidency, the local authorities or some combination thereof. Once the reforms had been implemented and a date for the elections had been set, the IDF would withdraw from PA territory. In the third stage, discussions between Israel and the PA would follow on the establishment of a temporary Palestinian State, alongside a settlement f reeze, a resumption of multilateral peace talks and, perhaps, an international conference at the level of foreign ministers. Finally, negotiations on a final-status agreement between Israel and the Palestinian State would take place. The article also said Mr. Satterfield had told Senior Palestinian negotiator and PA Minister Saeb Erakat that no elections could be held “if the preconditions [had] not been met”, after being informed by him that Palestinian elections for the Presidency and the Legislative Council had been set for 15 January 2003. (Ha’aretz)

Two Israeli Apache helicopters reportedly fired three missiles at a Palestinian vehicle in Tubas, north-east of Nablus, in an attempt to assassinate an Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades activist, killing three people inside the car and two Palestinian children, nine- and ten-year-old, nearby. Six others were injured in the attack, including a 7-year-old boy, who was said to be in critical condition. Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer reportedly ordered an IDF investigation into the incident. (Ha’aretz, Reuters)

Peace Now reported that eight new settlement outposts had been built in the West Bank in August, and cited a number of existing outposts that had been fortified with additional structures. The new outposts include: “Elon Moreh Darom,” 3.5 km southeast of “Elon Moreh” “Itamar Tzaphon,” 1.5 km north of “Itamar” “Brakha Darom,” 850 m south of “Brakha”; “Brakha 778,” adjacent to “Brakha”; “Beit Hagai Ma’arav,” 300 m west of the existing settlement; “Hakaron,” a site where there is a restaurant, cafe and lookout; “Givat Shvut Rahel,” 1.5 km west of “Shvut Rahel;” and “Habayit Ha’Adom,” 2.5 km east of “Shvut Rahel.” Peace Now also started a campaign of sending letters to settlers offering to help them move out of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and set up a voice mail box where settlers can leave a message. The letter says: “We are turning to you out of a feeling of responsibility and shared fate” and notes that Peace Now has conducted research indicating that “many Israelis living in the territories are interested in returning to live in Israel, within the boundaries of the Green Line. The letter was also posted on the group’s website and read out on Kol Israel, which reportedly led to a large public response. (Ha’aretz, Peace Now press release)

The school year opened in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and most of the one million Palestinian pupils made it to class, as the IDF introduced a new curfew regime, with two one-hour periods every day during which children have to reach their schools and return home. Curfews remained in effect in Jenin and the old city section of Hebron, preventing 45,000 school children there from reaching their schools. Restrictions between towns and villages in the West Bank compelled many Palestinians to move from their home villages to towns closer to their jobs and enroll their children there, while children who stayed behind had dropped out of city schools and attended rural schools closer to their homes. The closures also compelled teachers to make special arrangements to reach their jobs. The PA Education Ministry report said the number of Palestinian schoolchildren had risen 6 per cent, with 175,000 joining the 2,029 schools in the West Bank and Gaza Strip this year; Israeli troops killed 239 schoolchildren and raided 197 schools in the current intifada, while education was stopped several times in about 850 schools; 166 schoolboys and 80 teachers are currently in Israeli jails; seven schools in the West Bank were shut down and turned into Israeli army outposts. (AFP, DPA, Ha’aretz)

The IDF reportedly arrested Hassan Yusef, a top political leader of Hamas in the West Bank, and a leading member of the PFLP. (AFP, Ha’aretz)

A Palestinian gunman reportedly infiltrated the “Har Brakha” settlement, south of Nablus, and seriously wounded two Israelis, before being shot dead. The attack was claimed in an anonymous phone call to AFP by the PFLP. (AFP, AP, DPA)

EU foreign ministers, meeting in the Danish seaside town of Elsinore gave “widespread support” for a Middle East peace plan seeking a Palestinian State by 2005, based on ideas by the EU, the US and Saudi Arabia, an EU spokesman said. The three-stage plan would next be taken to a meeting of the Quartet scheduled in New York for 16 September. (AFP, Reuters, see also DF of 28 August 2002)

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Chronological Review of Events/August 2002 – DPR review

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