Israelis kill 4 Palestinians, rocket hurts troops

By Atef Sa’ad

NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) – Israeli troops killed three
militants in a West Bank gunbattle and another Palestinian in
shelling to stop Gaza rocket fire on Thursday in escalating
violence that could complicate upcoming elections on both
sides.

Five soldiers were wounded in southern Israel by a
makeshift rocket launched from the Gaza Strip, where continuing
bloodshed has dimmed optimism for peacemaking that was raised
by Israel’s withdrawal in September.

Soldiers on an arrest raid in the city of Nablus killed the
three militants in a gun battle, including the West Bank
commander of the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine’s armed wing, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.

The army has stepped up raids since a deadly suicide
bombing on December 5, which Palestinian militants claimed as
vengeance for earlier killings of gunmen by the army.

In revenge for the Nablus deaths, Islamic Jihad and al-Aqsa
Martyrs Brigades said they fired a makeshift rocket from Gaza
that wounded five soldiers on a base in southern Israel. Such
attacks rarely cause casualties.

Israel responded with artillery and Palestinian medics said
one man had been killed, but the Israelis are already
considering whether to use harsher reprisals for rocket fire
without sending troops back into Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon cannot afford to look
soft ahead of a March 28 general election in which polls show
he should easily win re-election on the back of the withdrawal
from Gaza after 38 years of occupation.

Sharon leads a new centrist party with a platform of ending
conflict with the Palestinians following his departure from the
right-wing Likud to escape hardliners opposed to quitting any
land that Palestinians seek for a state.

ELECTION ISSUE

More attacks, particularly from Gaza, could strengthen the
hand of Sharon’s main challenger from the right, Benjamin
Netanyahu. He denounced the Gaza pullout as a surrender to
Palestinian militants that would only encourage attacks.

Any dramatic surge in violence could also create problems
for a January 25 Palestinian parliamentary election and
potentially force a delay.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is already under
pressure to postpone the poll due to internal unrest and a
split in his rightist ruling Fatah movement that has enhanced
the electoral prospects of the Islamic militant group, Hamas.

Calls to delay the Palestinian poll also followed Israel’s
announcement on Wednesday it would to ban Palestinian residents
of East Jerusalem from voting, citing the participation of
Hamas, sworn to destroying Israel.

Hamas and a coalition of other Palestinian factions issued
a joint statement on Thursday urging the election be held on
schedule and calling on Abbas to find a way to ensure that East
Jerusalem residents can vote.

Partly with the election in mind, Hamas has largely
followed a 10-month-old truce, but it is due to expire on
December 31. Some other factions that have emerged during a
five-year uprising have shown less commitment to their promise
to ensure calm.

In a fresh sign of internal unrest, gunmen from al-Aqsa
Martyrs Brigades — part of Fatah — blocked the Gaza Strip’s
main north-south highway on Thursday to demand jobs.

Palestinians had welcomed their new freedom on that road
since Israeli troops withdrew.

(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza)