Israel kills 5 Palestinians in raid, draws rocket fire

By Muin Shadid

TULKARM, West Bank (Reuters) – Israeli troops killed five
Palestinians in a West Bank raid and Palestinian militants
fired a rocket into Israel on Thursday, rattling a ceasefire
and hopes raised by a removal of Jewish settlers from occupied
land.

The flare-up, which included the fatal stabbing of a
British Jew by a Palestinian in Jerusalem on Wednesday, was the
first since Israel finished scrapping all 21 settlements in
Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank on Tuesday.

A new surge of violence would jeopardize a truce that
largely held as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon carried out
his “Disengagement Plan” and make it harder to capitalize on
the pullout by reviving Middle East peacemaking.

Troops who raided Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank
overnight killed five militants in a gunbattle after they
resisted arrest for suspected involvement in two suicide
bombings in Israel this year, the Israeli army said.

Palestinian witnesses said three of the dead were unarmed
teenagers and two were militants, one from the al-Aqsa Martyrs
Brigades, an armed group in Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas’s Fatah movement, and the other from Islamic Jihad.

“The enemy should prepare coffins because we will respond
quickly and decisively in the depths of the Zionist entity,”
Islamic Jihad said in a statement issued in Gaza City.

Shortly afterwards, a rocket fired from north Gaza crashed
near the Israeli town of Sderot, causing no damage or injuries,
in an attack claimed by the Popular Resistance Committees, made
up primarily of former Fatah members.

Israel has threatened to hit back “harder than ever before”
for any attacks emanating from Gaza after settlers were out.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the raid as
counterproductive to peace efforts. He accused Israel of trying
to “renew a cycle of violence” to dodge talks based on a peace
“road map” to Palestinian statehood in the West Bank and Gaza.

“I call on Palestinians not to respond to provocations by
Israel so as not to give it a pretext to escalate its
aggression … and avoid implementation of commitments under
the road map,” he said in a statement.

ISRAEL’S GRIP

Palestinians are concerned about Sharon’s view that Israel
for strategic reasons must keep its largest West Bank
settlements where over 200,000 Jews live. Palestinians fear
this will cost them the heartland of their desired viable
state.

A Palestinian stabbed to death a 22-year-old ultra-Orthodox
British Jew named as Shmuel Mott and wounded a friend in
Jerusalem’s walled Old City. Police said the attack was
motivated by nationalism and the assailant was being sought.

Militant groups agreed in talks with Abbas in March on an
informal “calm” at least until the end of 2005 to smooth
Israel’s planned pullout and give him a chance to resume talks
with Israel on Palestinian statehood in Gaza and the West Bank.

The truce, while greatly reducing violence overall, has
been spotty. Until mid-July, there were periodic bouts of
militant mortar and rocket fire at settlers, two suicide
attacks and a number of Israeli raids for wanted men in the
West Bank.

The two sides have blamed each other for breaking the
quiet.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Israeli military forces
were expected to leave Gaza in mid-September, 38 years after
Israel captured the territory along with Gaza and Arab East
Jerusalem, including the Old City, in a Middle East war.

Political sources said the cabinet will vote on Sunday on a
deal reached with Egypt to replace Israeli troops along its
border with Gaza with 750 special Egyptian border police to
prevent arms smuggling to Palestinian militants.

Israel intends to maintain its grip over Gaza’s sea lanes
and air space and a presence at its main border crossing with
Egypt. Palestinians say occupation in Gaza will not really end
until it gains unrestricted access to the outside world.

Some 1.4 million Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip and
2.4 million in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The World Court has ruled all Israeli settlements in Gaza
and the West Bank are illegal. Israel disputes this.