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Israel kills 3 militants and bystander { June 27 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3000450http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3000450
Israel Kills Three Militants; Gaza Talks 'Progress'
Fri June 27, 2003 06:05 AM ET
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) - Israel killed three Palestinian militants and a civilian bystander Friday in another swoop on the radical Hamas movement, again battering efforts to save a troubled Middle East peace plan.
Palestinian officials said "remarkable progress" had been made in talks late Thursday on an Israeli army pullback from the Gaza Strip needed to foster a cease-fire. But Israel's raid Friday raised the specter of revenge attacks by militants.
The right-wing Israeli government's persistent campaign to capture or kill militants it describes as "ticking bombs" have bedeviled attempts by the Palestinians' new reformist leadership to coax radical factions into a cease-fire.
Israel and the United States, main sponsor of the "road map" peace plan unfurled on June 4 but rapidly torn by bloodshed, say a truce is not enough and that armed groups must be dismantled to create a Palestinian state co-existing with Israel.
U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, due on a trouble-shooting visit to the region this weekend, urged European Union and Arab countries Thursday to sever funding for the political wing of the Hamas movement, which has spearheaded a 33-month-old revolt against Israeli occupation.
But Hamas boasts significant popularity both for its resistance to occupation and welfare services in impoverished Palestinian areas blockaded by Israel, and Palestinian officials said U.S. calls to crush the movement could provoke civil war.
ISRAELIS BLAST HAMAS FAMILY HOME
Israeli troops swept into the village of Mughraqa in central Gaza and surrounded the home of Adnan al-Ghoul, a reputed master Hamas bombmaker, precipitating a clash in which helicopter gunships and tanks fired into the area, witnesses said.
Al-Ghoul's 15-year-old son Mohammed and 21-year-old nephew Emran, both Hamas militants, were killed as well as an operative of the allied Islamic Jihad faction and a civilian in an adjacent house, relatives and neighbors said.
Relatives said Adnan al-Ghoul was not there at the time and remained "alive and free." Israeli forces demolished the house and blood smeared olive trees nearby in the aftermath.
The Israel army commander in Gaza said forces moved in after receiving a tip-off that the al-Ghouls were plotting "a major terrorist" attack on Israelis in the territory later Friday. Military sources said Emran al-Ghoul was the main quarry.
An army spokesman said troops also arrested the Hamas commander in the Jenin area of the West Bank early Friday.
Radical factions led by Hamas said this week they were nearing a deal to suspend attacks on Israelis and hoped to nail it down within days. But they have set terms including an end to Israeli incursions and "assassinations."
Hamas's military wing hinted at a violent response to Friday's Israeli raid. "We promise our people that the flag of legitimate resistance will stay raised as long as occupation goes on," it said in a statement faxed to media.
Palestinian officials said the talks between Palestinian security minister Mohammed Dahlan and Major-General Amos Gilad, Israeli's coordinator in occupied territories, also addressed Palestinian demands for prisoner releases and a lifting of Israel's ban on travel by young Palestinian men.
Israeli security sources confirmed a meeting was held, the latest in a series on handing over security control to Palestinian authorities, but withheld further comment. The road map envisages a Palestinian state by 2005 in Gaza and the West Bank after Palestinians halt militant violence and Israel curbs Jewish settlement-building. Israel seized both territories in the 1967 Middle East war.
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