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Israel kills 5 in west bank threatening peace process { August 26 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://nytimes.com/2005/08/26/international/middleeast/26mideast.htmlhttp://nytimes.com/2005/08/26/international/middleeast/26mideast.html
August 26, 2005
Israel Kills 5 in West Bank Raid; Abbas Says It Undermines Peace
By GREG MYRE
JERUSALEM, Aug. 25 - The Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, accused Israel on Thursday of undermining peace efforts with an undercover military raid in the West Bank city of Tulkarm in which five Palestinians were killed.
Israel said all five were "armed wanted terrorists," including an Islamic Jihad leader who had orchestrated two suicide bombings, but Palestinians said three of the dead were unarmed teenagers.
Israel's evacuation of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank improved the atmosphere recently, but a series of violent incidents has prompted renewed recriminations. On Wednesday night a 21-year-old Jewish seminary student from Britain, Shmuel Matt, was stabbed to death in Old City of Jerusalem, while on Thursday rocket fire hit northern and southern Israel.
Mr. Abbas used unusually sharp language in describing Israel's incursion into Tulkarm shortly before midnight on Wednesday.
"At a time when the Palestinian Authority is trying to maintain calm, this murder intentionally seeks to renew the vicious cycle of violence," he said in a statement. But he also urged Palestinians "not to respond to provocations by Israel, so as not to give it a pretext to escalate its aggression."
The Israeli military and Palestinian witnesses agreed that five Palestinians had been shot dead by Israeli soldiers, and that one was a local leader of Islamic Jihad, identified as Adel Abu Khalil, 26. But the two sides disputed a number of details. Israel's military said that all five were Islamic Jihad terrorists that it had been seeking to arrest, and that the Palestinians had fired first.
Abdelkarim Dalbah, a Palestinian journalist who witnessed the shooting from an apartment balcony, said it had begun when Israeli undercover troops emerged from a van and confronted the Palestinian men, who were sitting at an outdoor table.
The Israeli soldiers fired first, he said, and soon additional troops in jeeps arrived. After the initial gunfire that killed the Palestinians, shots were exchanged in the area for about half an hour, Mr. Dalbah said.
Palestinians in Tulkarm said two of those killed were militants but three were teenagers who were unarmed but might have had loose affiliations with Palestinian factions.
Israel's military said Mr. Abu Khalil orchestrated two suicide bombings this year, an attack in February that killed five people in Tel Aviv and a blast in July that killed five in Netanya.
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for both attacks. One bomber came from Mr. Abu Khalil's village, Atil, and the other from a neighboring village. Both are near Tulkarm, which an Israeli military spokesman said had become "the center of the Islamic Jihad terror organization" in the West Bank.
Islamic Jihad is "refusing to adhere to the period of calm," the spokesman said, adding that the "Palestinian Authority turns a blind eye to their activities."
In a statement issued in Gaza City, Islamic Jihad said, "The enemy should prepare coffins, because we will respond quickly and decisively deep inside the Zionist entity."
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel and Mr. Abbas agreed to a truce in February that has contributed to a reduction in violence but has not ended the fighting that began five years ago. After the truce, Israel returned two West Bank towns, Tulkarm and Jericho, to Palestinian security control. But Israel, saying the Palestinian leadership has failed to control the armed factions, has refused to relinquish security control in three other West Bank towns as pledged.
The Israeli police continued a search on Thursday for the Arab assailant who fatally stabbed Mr. Matt in Jerusalem, near the Jaffa Gate, and wounded another student.
At least one of two homemade rockets fired by Palestinians from the northern Gaza Strip landed in Israel near Sederot, but caused no damage, the military said. Palestinians have fired hundreds of the rockets in recent years, and these were the first ones launched since Israel evacuated its last settlers from Gaza on Monday.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
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