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Journalist killed Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020313/wl_nm/mideast_dc_824http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020313/wl_nm/mideast_dc_824
Israel Presses Offensive; Italian Journalist Killed
Wed Mar 13, 9:00 AM ET
By Mohammed Assadi
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - An officer in Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s guard and an Italian war
photographer were killed on Wednesday as Israel pressed on with its biggest offensive in decades against the Palestinians on
the eve of a U.S. peace mission.
With Israeli forces tightening their grip on the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian officials said
efforts by envoy Anthony Zinni to reach a cease-fire in the 17-month-old conflict would be doomed
unless Israel withdrew its tanks and troops.
But in an acrimonious session, Israel's security cabinet decided to keep up the fierce campaign
despite the objections of Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who wanted to pull out before
Zinni arrived Thursday, Israeli radio reported.
Pope John Paul (news - web sites) made a pressing appeal for an end to the violence, saying: "We
are all saddened by the daily instances of violence and death in Israel and the Palestinian territories."
Palestinian security sources said Abu Fadi, deputy commander in Ramallah for Arafat's Force 17
elite guard, was killed in a gun battle with Israelis in the center of the city.
Free-lance photographer Raffaele Ciriello, who was shot several times in the chest, became the first
foreign journalist killed in the conflict. He had worked in many of the world's hot spots.
Palestinian hospital sources said Ciriello was killed by Israeli gunfire a day after tanks stormed into
Ramallah on Tuesday, when 41 people were killed on both sides in one of the bloodiest cycles of
violence so far.
The army, which swept into Ramallah against the backdrop of daily Palestinian attacks in Israel, said
it did not know the circumstances of Ciriello's death and would investigate.
"It is important to remember that there have been exchanges of fire in Ramallah, and that this was the reason the army closed
off the area to journalists yesterday," said Lieutenant-Colonel Olivier Rafowicz, an army spokesman.
A French journalist was hit in the leg by gunfire but his wound was not life-threatening.
SHADOW OVER ZINNI'S MISSION
The latest operations are Israel's biggest offensive in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (news - web sites) since it seized the two
areas in the 1967 Middle East war.
Palestinian officials accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) of trying to sabotage Zinni's mission even
before it started. The former Marine Corps general was set to reactivate Washington's peacemaking role after two failed
efforts.
"A cease-fire is impossible as long as they are occupying Ramallah and as long as they are putting snipers on the roofs of
buildings in the city to kill and target civilians," Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo told Reuters.
Sharon launched the two-week-old campaign involving 20,000 troops in the West Bank and Gaza Strip after a wave of
Palestinian attacks brought intensified right-wing calls for tougher action.
Some 150 armored vehicles thrust into Ramallah and nearby refugee camps Tuesday, tearing up roads and crushing cars in the
main Palestinian commercial and political hub in the West Bank, just north of Jerusalem.
Hundreds of spent bullet cartridges were scattered around Ramallah's central al-Manara Square. Tanks were stationed at
schools and on road junctions throughout the city. Machinegun and rifle fire continued sporadically.
"HOSPITAL SUPPLIES CUT OFF"
Palestinian Deputy Health Minister Munther al-Sharif accused Israeli forces of blocking entry to Ramallah's main hospital to
wounded and supplies and of cutting off electricity and water.
"This is a death sentence," he told Reuters. "If they don't allow us to open, we will start doing surgery on the street." Hospital
sources said 32 Palestinians were wounded on Wednesday.
The army denied troops had closed the hospital to wounded and said water and power had been cut off accidentally and efforts
were under way to restore supplies.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites), in his harshest criticism of Israel, urged it to stop "the bombing of
civilian areas, the assassinations, the unnecessary use of lethal force, the demolitions and the daily humiliation of ordinary
Palestinians."
The U.N. Security Council passed a U.S.-drafted resolution referring for the first time to a Palestinian state existing side by
side with Israel.
The 14-0 vote late Tuesday, with Syria abstaining, marked the first time the 15-nation council had approved a resolution on the
Middle East since October 2000 and was the first recent text touching on the region to be written by Washington.
U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said Washington's move aimed to give momentum to Zinni's mission, which coincides with
a trip to the region by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites). Both sides welcomed the resolution.
GUNFIRE, HOUSE SEARCHES
Troops searching house-to-house for weapons and militants exchanged fire with Palestinian gunmen as tanks rumbled through
the deserted streets of Ramallah, a city of more than 200,000. Tuesday, at least five Palestinians were killed in Ramallah.
Israeli forces also continued operations in the Gaza Strip Wednesday, sending tanks into the Palestinian-ruled town of Jabalya
where they fired on security posts before withdrawing.
Hours after tanks took over Ramallah Tuesday, two gunmen disguised as Israeli soldiers killed six Israelis near the Lebanese
border before troops shot them dead.
At least 1,057 Palestinians and 340 Israelis have been killed since the uprising began in September 200.
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