JERUSALEM Ñ Palestinian insurgents have resumed insurgency attacks
against Israeli communities in the wake of Israel's pullback from its military campaign in the West
Bank.
Palestinian insurgents entered a Jewish settlement south of Hebron and
killed at least four people and injured seven others on Saturday. The
insurgents were
dressed as Israeli soldiers and cut through the fence surrounding the
community of Adora.
The attackers fled. Hours later, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian
near Hebron who was said to have participated in the attack, Middle East Newsline reported.
Israel over the weekend agreed to a U.S. proposal to end the
five-month-old siege on Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.
The government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon accepted a
proposal by President George Bush to allow Arafat to leave his Ramallah
headquarters in return for the detention of six Palestinians wanted by
Israel. Five of the Palestinians are suspected of being linked to the
assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi.
By a vote of 17-8, the Sharon Cabinet agreed on Sunday that the six
Palestinian fugitives would be placed in a PA jail in the Gaza Strip. They
would be monitored by British and U.S. security personnel.
Bush also invited Sharon to the White House next week for what Israeli
officials termed would be strategic talks. The officials did not elaborate.
Arafat's release was a key demand by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Bin
Abdul Aziz. Abdullah met Bush last week at the president's ranch in Texas.
Military sources said Israeli army bases and Jewish settlements in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip were placed on alert over the prospect that other
Palestinians dressed as Israeli soldiers would try to enter Israeli
communities.
It was the bloodiest Palestinian attack since the Israeli offensive in
the West Bank on March 29. About 200 Palestinians were killed and another
5,000 were arrested in the campaign.
Over the weekend, Israeli tanks, armored personnel carriers and
engineering forces operated in the West Bank city of Kalkiliya. A military
spokesman said a Palestinian insurgency leader was killed and another 16
were arrested.
In Gaza, Palestinian gunners intensified mortar
fire against
Israeli targets. Gunners fired mortars in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday
and Saturday.
The United States has again failed to endorse Saudi, United Nations and
European
Union proposals for an international force in the Palestinian areas. U.S.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said U.S. troops cannot maintain a peace
that does not exist between Israel and Palestinians.
"The only reason you would ever have peacekeepers or observers is if you
have a peace to be observed," Rumsfeld said. "And it does not yet exist."
