Israel resumes assassination policy against militants

Compiled by Daily Star staff

Israel said it had resumed an assassination policy against some Palestinian militants and could mount air strikes with the risk of civilian casualties to ensure its Gaza pullout does not come under fire. The threat, prompted by a flare-up of Islamic Jihad attacks on settlers in Gaza, reflected the deterioration of a four-month-old truce after a frosty Israeli-Palestinian summit. An Israeli aircraft fired missiles at four Islamic Jihad members in the north Gaza village of Beit Lahiya as they launched rockets into Israel, militants sources said. No one was hurt but a rocket was destroyed.

Israel shelved “targeted killings” of militants in February as part of a truce deal. But resurgent violence has raised the spectre of disruption to Israel’s planned August withdrawal from Gaza and dimmed hopes for “road map” peace talks. Word that the assassination policy had been dusted off came with Israeli confirmation of a failed missile strike on Tuesday while Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were holding tense talks in Jerusalem. “Any means to neutralize the organization are relevant and possible,” Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra said.

Islamic Jihad has resumed mortar bomb and rocket salvoes against Jewish settlements in Gaza in what it calls retaliation for continued Israeli raids to capture wanted militants. Khaled al-Batsh, a senior Islamic Jihad leader, warned of “terrible consequences” if Israel carried out assassinations. Later, a senior adviser to Sharon said Israel could stage air strikes in Gaza, even at the risk of Palestinian civilian casualties, if militants tried to attack departing settlers in a bid to show they were chasing them out of occupied territory. “If pinpoint response proves insufficient, we may have to use weaponry that causes major collateral damage,” said Eival Giladi, head of the government team coordinating the plan. Sharon and Abbas agreed at their meeting to cooperate for as smooth as possible the Gaza withdrawal, set for August. But aides to Abbas said Sharon brushed aside his requests for goodwill gestures to relieve burdens of occupation, such as open borders for Gaza, a removal of a roadblock network in the West Bank and further releases of jailed Palestinians.

Highlighting the hardships of occupation, an international rights group said that Israel’s failure to investigate unlawful killings of Palestinians during nearly five years of bloodshed has fostered a culture of impunity in which soldiers “get away with murder.” Human Rights Watch said Israeli forces have killed or wounded thousands of innocent Palestinian and foreign civilians since the intifada began. But Israeli authorities have investigated whether soldiers used unlawful force in fewer than five percent of the fatal cases, the group said.

“Most of Israel’s investigations of civilian casualties have been a sham,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director of HRW, responsible for the report: “Promoting Impunity: The Israeli Military’s Failure to Investigate Wrongdoing.” Abbas tried to rally international support after coming away with no tangible results from his humiliating summit with Sharon. Officials said Abbas spent the night after Tuesday’s summit working the phones to world leaders, including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdel-Aziz.

In another development, gunmen in a West Bank refugee camp opened fire as Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei lectured local militants on the need to end internal violence and chaos plaguing the West Bank and Gaza Strip – the closest militants have come to targeting one of their own leaders. “This country needs order, needs quiet,” Qorei shouted, repeating a theme he has been pressing for weeks. But as he spoke in the Balata camp next to the city of Nablus, gunfire rang out, startling the prime minister and putting his bodyguards on high alert. After Qorei’s speech, gunmen opened fire again and set off an explosive device about 300 meters from his convoy. No one was injured and Qorei was whisked away. Qorei later promised to take action, but he did not spell out specific plans. Meanwhile, in the southern city of Hebron, about 100 high school students, complaining that their final exam in physics was too difficult, attacked the education department, throwing stones at the building and burning tires. – Agencies