Israel on Wednesday expelled to the Gaza Strip the brother and sister of a slain West Bank militant after a landmark court ruling, as Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller won the backing of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for an EU plan to wind down the conflict.
The army dumped Kifah and Intissar Adjuri, brother and sister of Ali Adjuri, a slain West Bank chief of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, in a field outside a Jewish settlement on the southern edge of Gaza City after dodging Palestinian security officials opposed to the precedent-setting expulsion.
The Adjuris’ brother, Ali, killed by Israeli forces in August, was accused of organizing a double suicide bombing that killed five people, plus the bombers, in Tel Aviv on July 17.
Their expulsion, condemned by international rights groups as well as by the Palestinian leadership, was the first of its kind since the start of the intifada, or Palestinian uprising, in September 2000.
The army hopes the move will serve as a deterrent to future attackers.
The army suffered a blow when the Israeli Supreme Court forbade it from banishing a third man, saying there was no proof he had actually helped his brother prepare an attack.
The court said the Adjuris had knowingly aided their brother prepare for his deadly strike.
The army gave the Adjuris 1 000 shekels ($200) and a bottle of water each and then dropped them out of the back of an armoured vehicle in a vineyard outside Netzarim settlement, close to the spot where a tank shot dead four Palestinian civilians last week.
They were picked up by a human rights group and taken into Gaza City where Intissar told reporters bitterly, ”We didn’t want to leave Nablus, we didn’t want to come here. Our deportation is in full violation of human rights and international law.”
The Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot said that following the court decision on Tuesday, authorities are planning to ”relocate” a dozen other relatives accused of complicity in attacks to Gaza.
Meanwhile, Denmark’s Moeller met Arafat in Ramallah and Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer in Jerusalem, before holding closed talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
He is to hold talks on Thursday with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
Moeller, whose country took over the rotating presidency of the European Union on July 1, is on a regional tour to promote an EU plan to defuse the crisis, aid a return to talks and set up an independent Palestinian state.
He arrived late on Tuesday from Egypt, where his Egyptian counterpart, Ahmed Maher, announced Cairo’s support for the plan, whose first phase calls for a security agreement to be concluded ahead of Palestinian elections in January.
The second phase calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state with provisional borders in 2003, and the third phase a Palestinian state with final borders in 2005.
At the same time, peace talks would be launched between Israel, and Lebanon and Syria, the plan suggests.
Moeller’s trip marks the first high-level talks for the diplomatically isolated Arafat since June 25, when French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin arrived, a day after US President George Bush called for Arafat to be dropped as Palestinian leader.
Arafat gave provisional Palestinian backing to the EU plan. ”We accept it in principle and we will provide you with a detailed response later,” Arafat said.
”It is a very important initiative and we will study it very carefully. There is great need to move forward fast and save the peace process, not only for the sake of the Palestinians, but also for the sake of the Israelis and all the nations in the region,” he said.
The Dane’s visit has dovetailed with one by David Satterfield, US deputy assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs.
Satterfield was in Beirut on Wednesday on the last leg of a trip that has already taken him to Israel, the Palestinian territories, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria.
The diplomatic activity has been matched by a slight lull in fighting on the ground. There have been no attacks inside Israel for a month, although security forces occupying the West Bank have arrested militants they accused of planning fresh strikes.
Palestinian deputy minister for foreign affairs Sufian Abu Zaydeh denounced attacks on Israeli civilians championed by armed militant groups.
”Personally I consider attacks against civilians in Israel a strategic error and unacceptable as much for political as for moral reasons,” he said on Israeli radio.
The statement came a week after Yahya reiterated the Palestinian Authority’s call to militant groups to cease suicide attacks in Israel.
Despite the lull in Israel, in the Palestinian territories the death toll has remained high, with militants trying to attack Jewish settlements and Israeli forces sparking criticism by killing an alarming number of civilians, including children.
Ben Eliezer on Tuesday attributed the army’s killing of 12 Palestinian civilians in the last week to bad luck after receiving the preliminary results of an army investigation.
”It appears as if there was a series of irregular events, but I was presented with the result of the preliminary investigation and was convinced that it was bad luck,” the defence minister said.
The final army report is due on Friday. – Sapa-AFP