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Militants kill 5 israeli soldiers Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/6045948.htmhttp://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/6045948.htm
Posted on Mon, Jun. 09, 2003
Palestinian militants kill 5 Israeli soldiers in attacks
Coordinated strike signals groups have cut off cease-fire talks
AARON DAVIS
Knight Ridder
JERUSALEM - Palestinian militants killed five Israeli soldiers and wounded at least five others Sunday in a symbolic show of opposition to the Aqaba peace summit and the fledgling U.S.-backed road map for peace.
Three powerful militant groups -- Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade -- each handpicked one gunman to send in a pre-dawn suicide attack on Israeli soldiers in a militarized no-man's land that separates the Gaza Strip from Israel.
Later, near the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron, two more Palestinian militants died in a shooting attack that killed one Israeli soldier.
The attacks were the first since Wednesday's Aqaba summit, at which Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas pledged to President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to end all violence against Israelis.
Israeli officials closed all borders to the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The carnage left Israeli Sharon facing boos and shouts Sunday night at a meeting of his own conservative Likud party.
"We won't give a thing as long as the terror, violence and incitement continues," Sharon told them, the New York Times reported. "But we will be willing to make very painful concessions to get security and to get true peace."
But Abbas faces a far more severe challenge to his leadership and support for the peace effort.
The coordinated attack signaled that all Palestinian militant groups have broken off cease-fire talks with Abbas, who hoped to end violence against Israelis through negotiations and not the direct crackdown that Israel and the United States prefer.
So far Abbas and his security chief, Mohammed Dahlan, have shunned confrontation with the radical groups and have sought instead to reach a negotiated truce. "We have no option but to negotiate to reach our goal," Abbas told reporters at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. "We want to calm the situation, not (have) a civil war."
Abbas also said his conciliatory remarks at the peace summit were "misunderstood," but did not elaborate, the Post said.
Palestinian leaders said the attacks underscore a rift between Abbas and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat within the ruling Fatah party. Many officials, they said, are fleeing back to support Arafat after Abbas delivered a speech that many Palestinians considered a sellout at last week's peace summit.
Abbas had promised an end to violence everywhere against Israelis and disavowed suicide attacks and armed resistance to Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. He was also silent on many issues dear to Palestinians.
Hamas leaders, who were nearing a cease-fire arrangement with Abbas before the speech, disavowed him.
"We are through with Abbas," said Hamas spokesman Abdel Aziz Rantisi. "He denied our right of resistance. We will not abandon this right."
Counterterrorism officials in Israel said Sunday's attack might have been the first in which the three Palestinian militant groups worked so closely together. Collectively, the groups have ordered nearly 200 suicide attacks on Israelis. The groups issued one joint statement of responsibility, another first.
Bush administration officials, appearing on Sunday television news shows, warned both sides in the conflict to keep taking measurable steps toward meeting commitments from last week's summit despite the slayings.
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States will work to help Abbas maintain his hold on power and to disarm militant Palestinian groups like the ones that claimed responsibility for the shootings.
Powell told reporters traveling with him to Chile that the United States and its partners will "not let us get derailed by acts of terror that are intended to derail" the peace plan. "We can't let them win."
Powell said U.S. diplomats would be directly involved in helping Israeli and Palestinian officials coordinate responses to the attacks, a new level of hands-on engagement President Bush promised last week.
According to Israeli army officials, the three Palestinian gunmen entered Erez Crossing along with a group of Palestinian workers on their way to work in Israel. Israel recently began allowing 25,000 Palestinian workers into the country as a goodwill gesture.
The gunmen, disguised as Israeli military officers, jumped a fence into an industrial area adjacent to the crossing. The rugged terrain at Erez is dotted with military outposts.
The attack targeted the nearest army post. The gunmen shot a maintenance soldier working on a tank at point blank range and then killed the two soldiers guarding the gate.
During the 20-minute shootout that ensued, a fourth soldier was killed and several were wounded before the three gunmen were killed.
"They took advantage of thousands of Palestinians who are trying to make a living in Israel," said Jacob Dalal, an Israeli Army spokesman. "Now we have to be more careful which will make it harder for Palestinians to work in Israel."
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Knight Ridder reporter Warren Strobel, special correspondent Cliff Churgin, the New York Times and the Washington Post contributed to this article.
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