Israeli soldiers shot dead five Palestinians in the Gaza Strip
Thursday on the bloodiest day in the coastal territory in
weeks.
Troops killed a woman, 35, and an armed man during a raid of a
militant stronghold in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
In northern Gaza, soldiers killed three teenagers, whom
Palestinians said were shepherds and the Israeli army said were
tinkering with a rocket launcher. Two rockets were launched from
the area earlier, damaging an Israeli apartment building.
The flareup came after Egypt reported progress in efforts to
free an Israeli soldier whose capture on June 25 in a cross-border
raid from Gaza, sparked an Israeli offensive in which more than 215
Palestinians have been killed.
The ruling Islamic militant group Hamas welcomed a statement by
the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators endorsing efforts to
forge a Palestinian unity government that could help end the
offensive and an international aid blockade.
In its statement issued on Wednesday, the United States,
European Union, United Nations and Russia said any unity government
should "reflect" demands to recognize Israel, renounce terrorism
and abide by peace deals.
The Quartet did not call on the Palestinian Government to
explicitly meet the three conditions, and also urged Israel to hand
over withheld Palestinian tax revenues.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said the statement was a sign
of progress and "we hope that this position will contribute to
stopping all forms of political and economic siege."
Israel reacts cautiously
Israel reacted cautiously to the statement with some officials
acknowledging it amounted to a weakening of an international
campaign to isolate the Hamas-led government that came to power in
March.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said it was critical to
insist that Hamas meet the three conditions. "Giving legitimacy to
the extremists that do not accept the three benchmarks can only
undermine the position of the moderates."
Right-wing Israeli politicians said the Quartet position
amounted to a defeat for Israel.
Silvan Shalom, a former foreign minister of the Likud party,
accused Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of giving a green light to the
policy change by agreeing to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas, a moderate, while Hamas remained in power.
Olmert has seen his public standing plummet since a war with
Hizbollah guerrillas ended on Aug.14 with the group's leaders still
in power and two Israeli soldiers, whose capture sparked the
fighting, still not released.
A poll in Israel's biggest circulation daily, Yedioth
Ahronoth, showed Olmert trailing two right-wing lawmakers and
two of his own cabinet ministers, with a mere 7 percent saying he
was best suited as prime minister.
American and Israeli officials have cast doubt on the prospect
of Palestinians forming a unity government anytime soon, a reason
why the United States was willing to soften its stance, a senior
Israeli government source said.
The Americans "did not want to get into a fight with the
Europeans over what they think is a dead horse."
Tensions between Abbas's Fatah movement and Hamas flared up last
week when a top intelligence official loyal to Abbas was gunned
down in Gaza.
Tawfik Tirawi, a deputy intelligence commander, held a news
conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah, accusing Hamas of
failing to stop the attack and arrest those responsible, warning
this could bring more violence.
"If we do not quickly end this case and arrest all
perpetrators... then we are heading towards destruction," Tirawi
said. Hamas rejected the allegations as politically motivated.
(China Daily September 22, 2006)
