World Tribune.com
Seminars

Israel relaxing restrictions on military

Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Tuesday, June 26, 2001

JERUSALEM Ñ Israel is said to have released some of the restraints on the military in its nine-month-old war with the Palestinians.

Government sources said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has given the green light for the military to launch attacks against organizers of Palestinian attacks against the Jewish state. The sources said the attacks being approved are against Palestinian combatants rather than against installations.

On Sunday, a member of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction was killed in the West Bank city of Nablus. Osama Fathi Jawabra, described as a 29-year-old bombmaker, was killed in an explosion in a telephone booth.

PA officials blamed the Mossad for the assassination. Israel has not reacted to the blast.

The Israeli sources did not take responsibility for the blast. But they said Jawabra was on an Israeli list of 20 Palestinians submitted to the PA for detention. Last week, Israel set a 48-hour deadline for their arrest, a demand the PA ignored.

Overnight Monday, Palestinian gunmen fired on Israeli motorists and army vehicles throughout the West Bank. Palestinian gunners also fired mortars at a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip. On Monday morning Palestinians in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip fired at the Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim. No casualties were reported.

Later on Monday in Washington, Sharon is scheduled to meet with senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Colin Powell, who is expected to press Israel to implement recommendations of the Mitchell commission. Sharon, who earlier held talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, will meet President George Bush on Tuesday in Washington.

Sharon said he didn't expect to wait long until Israel launches attacks on PA targets. The prime minister said that so far Israel continues to maintain the ceasefire with the PA.

"We're talking about a critical stage, a last attempt," Israeli President Moshe Katsav said. "We have come to the end of our rope. It won't continue much longer. It's a matter of days."

But a senior official who is traveling with Sharon said Israel has chosen a defensive position rather than a campaign against the PA. The official said senior Israeli ministers decided against the collapse of the PA to facilitate the prospect of a political agreement with the Palestinians after the war ends.

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