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Israeli missile kills 7 Palestinians
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-28 08:48
Israel killed seven Palestinians in a missile strike Thursday against Islamic
Jihad, and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he would not meet with the
Palestinian leader until he cracks down on armed groups — a double-edged Israeli
response to the latest suicide bombing.
Sharon threatened a "broad and relentless" offensive against Palestinian
militants, including mass arrests and airstrikes, but security officials said
Israel would stop short of a large-scale military operation.
A Palestinian man raises his bloodied hand
after an Israeli air strike in the Jabalya refugee camp, north of Gaza
Strip, October 27, 2005.[Reuters] | Sharon's decision to shun Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas was the clearest
signal yet that efforts to revive peacemaking after Israel's pullout from the
Gaza Strip last month have run aground. Abbas has said he cannot and will not
confront militants, fearing civil war, but it's unlikely progress can be made
unless the two leaders meet.
The international community has been pressing for a quick Israeli-Palestinian
agreement on new security arrangements for Gaza's borders, and a continued
deadlock over such issues will prevent the economic recovery of impoverished
Gaza. That, in turn, could hurt Abbas' chances in parliamentary elections in
January.
Palestinians gather around the wreckage of a
car after it was hit by an Israeli missile strike in the Jebaliya refugee
cam, adjacent to Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Thursday Oct. 27,
2005.[AP] | In Washington, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice lodged a new appeal Thursday with Abbas to prevent terror
attacks on Israel and dismantle the groups that carry them out. She balanced her
request to Abbas with appeals to Israel to resume contacts with the
Palestinians, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
Wednesday's bombing in an open-air market in the central Israeli town of
Hadera killed five Israelis, the fourth suicide attack by Islamic Jihad since
Abbas negotiated a truce deal with Palestinian groups in February.
Abbas, widely known as Abu Mazen, condemned the bombing, but Israel said he
must do much more.
"If the Palestinian Authority does not take serious and tangible action
against terrorism, there will be no diplomatic progress and that would be a
pity. In such a situation, I will not meet with Abu Mazen," Sharon said after
meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Jerusalem.
There had been repeated efforts in recent weeks to arrange a Sharon-Abbas
meeting, but Israeli and Palestinian negotiators could not find enough common
ground on issues such as Gaza border arrangements, prisoner releases and an
Israeli pullout from some West Bank towns to hold a summit.
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